Lila
by Kifu
Summary: A mysterious cat-person from an unknown land comes to visit New York, only to find herself chased by the Foot Ninja. The turtles save her from their grasp, but after that they need to learn about her and why the Foot would want her in their custody.
1. Cat and Mouse

In most cases, the dock of a freight company in Manhattan New York would hardly be exciting. Nothing really happens there except the importing and exporting of goods between countries. Of course, there was always an oddball case, and this particular night happened to be one of them.

It was a spring night of the year 2010. The waning gibbous moon reflected on the calm waves by the docks, barely illuminating the crimes that might be happening within the city. Where the silver light failed to touch, however, a city light took its place. But right now, the internal city is not of concern. That freight ship that had just come in from Southeast Asia is where the story begins, bringing in not only valuable spices and other goods, but also a tiny hitchhiker.

That figure made sure to keep to the shadows as best as it possibly could. It moved with a grace unnatural to the human race, every movement of theirs seemingly planned and smooth. If anyone was fortunate enough to catch sight of the figure, they would be unable to distinguish any features or even their silhouette.

Quickly, without hesitation, the figure made it out of the industry's docks and into a dark alleyway leading into the city. Watching the form, one might think that it knew exactly where it was going, but that was not the case. The figure climbed its way up a fire escape, finally coming to a rest on the roof of the selected building. With the unclouded moonlight on the figure's back, the features were finally revealed.

Upon a first, quick glance, the figure was obviously not human. Cat ears protruded from a head neither human nor feline, but something in between. Thick fur covered the cheeks, a scratchy fur on the nose's bridge. The body was slender but powerful, the back curved like a house cat's spine. A bushy tail continued down the spine a good length more. Long arms supported the upper half of the body while shorter legs folded under it. At least, the limbs were short and long in relation to a human. Four stubby fingers with a hardened paw pad ended the arms while three stubby toes on a cat-like foot completed the leg. No feature gave away the gender of the humanistic feline.

"It's a jungle of stone," the creature commented out loud to no one in particular. Her voice—for the pitch of it was obviously feminine—expressed a confused awe. "Unnatural lights, dirty sounds, hard surfaces. Where am I?" She looked around her, and then got on to all fours of her paws, slowly making her away to the edge of the building. She looked over the edge to a street below. Still speaking out loud, she continued her observations: "Shiny blocks of color, furless creatures burdened with … some sort of malleable outer skin, just as colorful as the big blocks next to them. Are they oblivious to the noise they make?" She twitched an ear to the other side, feeling sorry for the creatures she didn't know as humans. Her sense of hearing was more reliable than her eyes, and she couldn't bear the thought of deafness, even unto the features below her.

She didn't have anything in particular to do, nor did she have a plan, so all she could think of to do was to continue her witless journey. Having explored the whole top of the building she had first climbed on, though without a clue as to what anything on it was, she prepared herself to leap from the one she was on to a new one in hopes that it would give her more clues as to what her surroundings were telling her. Her eyes scaled the distance that she was to jump, and her haunches prepared for the energy she would have to exert in order to make it. Giving herself a little running start, she leaped from the concrete edge of the first building, managing to get a grip on the edge of the other and enabling her to pull herself up. She gave this rooftop a search as well, but found nothing new.

Sitting once more, she began to examine the paw pad of one of her hands, pulling her brows together more out of frustration than of concern, although both were present. "I'm accustomed to the soft dirt and grasses of an open field. This wide expanse of hard, flat rock is roughing up my pads." Sticking out her tongue, she gave the hand she held up a lick, wrinkling her nose when she tasted the stink on her pad. Trying her best to ignore the retched taste, she continued to clean herself and to make her paw pads feel better, but the process was halted when an ear jerked to the side. Lifting her head and looking around, her gray eyes searched out the cause of the soft noise she had heard, as it had been close, but she saw nothing. Slightly concerned, but not too bothered, she once again began licking herself, but the bath was quickly interrupted.

A small group of black-clad furless men jumped on to the same roof that she was currently occupying. The fur rising up on the back of her neck, and her tail fluffing up with sudden caution, she rose to her two hind feet. Her eyes flicked between each of the men, her ears following the minimal amount of sound that they made. The sound of metal quietly rasping made her jerk her head in that direction quickly enough to dizzy someone. When she saw what it was that he was revealing, she was confused yet again. A long blade of metal was clenched in both of the black man's hands, held in front of him like it would somehow protect him. Once he made his move, the rest of the clan followed suit, and the cat-person found herself surrounded by hostile figures.

Her lips peeled back in a slight snarl, the claws unsheathing from her paws. "I don't know who you are or what you want," she began, not even thinking about whether they spoke her tongue or not, "but I don't want any part of it. I'm minding my own business, and if that's not enough, then—" Her speaking was cut off as one of the men gestured, and all of them came at her suddenly. Letting out a yowl, she jumped out of the way of one of those blades of metal just in time to dodge it. Without another sound, and with only a glance over her shoulder, she streaked out of their shadows and on to another, shorter building, down another fire escape, and finally into a darkened alley.

Small puffs of breath escaped from her mouth as she looked around, but she found no one. The hair gradually relaxed along her spine, but she brushed her tail with her hands anyway to help smooth it down and to calm herself. She no longer dared to speak aloud in case the black men would follow her by sound alone, despite the fact that she had been flushed into a busier part of the city, and even in the dead of night a few cars passed by. To her sensitive ears, the soft run of the motor was nearly deafening, but no matter what she tried, she couldn't get away. Eventually, she couldn't smell the water over the overwhelming fumes of exhaust, and she was effectively lost. To her reasoning, she also figured that the hostile men had lost her as well.

That, however, was not the case. By the time she had settled herself completely down, more of them had showed up behind her. Fingers had clumsily brushed against the fur on her neck by the time she realized that she was no longer alone. Letting out another yowl, she took off to a space that she thought unoccupied, except for another car heading down the street. Instantly turning around, she shot through the legs of one of the men and headed to a dumpster to launch herself up a fire escape and to a roof, thinking that they couldn't possibly follow her quickly enough. Again her logic was faulty. Countless more of the black men waited for her on the rooftop, surrounding her. She tried to turn around to get back into the alley, but the same uniformed men stood in the escape, blocking her way.

The crowd in front of her parted, and the cat-human thought it was her break, except for a slightly smaller figure making her way through the ninja men. Crouching down on all fours, but with her fangs showing in a hissing snarl, the cat-woman greeted this all-important lady. But, thanks to her cowardice, she didn't strike.

"You are to be coming with the Foot Clan," the woman announced with a heavily accented voice. "Any struggles and the Foot cannot guarantee your safety."

The Japanese woman received a hiss in reply, giving away the mutant cat's intentions immediately. Without hesitation, and only a lazy gesture, the woman reacted in kind by releasing the Foot on the small cat-human, turning her back.

Now the cat was panicking, finding no way out of the enclosing crowd of ninja. Seeing no other way out of the situation, she jumped on to the ledge of the building and streaked her way around the perimeter, dodging any of the larger men that came at her. Skidding around a corner, her claws digging into the tiny holes of the cement to save her, she continued down another side to pick up enough momentum to jump. Bunching her muscles, she dodged one last man before taking a flying leap to another building, hoping to escape the mass of strange people.

Just as she was airborne, a thoughtless man grabbed at her tail, almost jerking her back to the building she was trying to escape. Emitting a sharp cry of pain, the momentum that she gathered up pulled her tail from his grasp, but it was no longer enough for her to cleanly make it to the next building. Extending her claws once again, she grabbed on to the rough surface and clung there, trying to pull her whole body safely on to the new rooftop. Her upper body strength failing her, all she could do was helplessly watch as waves of ninja followed her to the building she clung upon, simply holding on tight enough to keep from falling. She kept expecting rough hands to pull her up to take her captive, but instead she heard sounds of fighting.

Her muscles began to burn from holding up her weight, and she was certain that her claws were being pulled out of her paws. She was just thinking about letting go of the building to chance a drop, but before she could do such a thing, a pair of hands did pull her up, but they weren't what she was expecting.

These hands had a soft grip, and instead of the five fingers the black-clad men had, they had only three each. Thick, green skin covered the surface of the hands. As the cat let herself be pulled up by them, she was shocked to discover that a humanoid creature resembling a turtle was the owner of the hands.

"Hi. I'm Donatello. But we'll have to exchange pleasantries after I get you out of here." The cat cast a glance over the shoulder of the turtle-man to see a writhing crowd of black men. Most of them lay unconscious on the rooftop. "Come on, follow me."

Hardly thinking, the cat followed Donatello around the rooftop to safely exit to an alley below. None of the black men followed the pair of them, but Donatello kept a long wooden stick in his hands out of preparation nonetheless. "Here, you'll be safe down here."

The cat nodded as the turtle pulled a large circle from a hole in the stone ground, exposing a black tunnel. She stared down it for a moment, holding on to the edge as she leaned over, but she didn't enter. Instead, she lifted her head and looked into the eyes of the green man, her nose wrinkled. "It smells terrible down there," she told him.

"I know," Donatello sighed, glancing up to the roof of the building, "but if you don't hurry up, the Foot will have you for sure."

Taking another glance down into the stinky, black hole, the cat turned around to retreat down a ladder, almost falling over once her bottom paws touched the slimy bottom of the tunnels. Standing off to the side, she made out Donatello's silhouette as he descended down the same ladder that she had just climbed down. Feeling his touch lightly upon her arm, she followed him through the pitch-darkness of the tunnel. She could hear her light footfalls as she made her way after him, but no matter how much she strained her ears, she couldn't hear his. The only sound other than them was the light sound of water traveling through the tunnels.

"Do you know why the Foot were after you?" Donatello inquired after a while, since she hadn't spoken up at all.

"No," she answered simply, especially since the shake of her head would have gone unseen in such darkness. Only dim light from other hole covers with the silvery moonlight peeking through could be seen at times, and that was hardly enough for the cat to see by.

The turtle sighed, still holding on to the cat. "I suppose we'll find out soon enough." He let another long silence continue as they took turn after turn down the labyrinth of smelly tunnels. "In all the commotion up top, I didn't ask your name."

"Oh," the cat said softly, blinking. She hadn't met new beings in most of her life, so she took it for granted that he would know what to call her. "I'm Lila."

"Well, Lila, welcome to home." With that being said, quiet sounds were heard before blinding light suddenly filled the tunnels. Cringing automatically, wrenching her arm from Donatello's grip, she shielded her eyes from the light until the gradually adjusted. When she looked up again, Donatello was still standing near her as if he was her guard, a soft smile on his beak. "I should have warned you about that. Sorry. Come on in." He turned around, heading into the big, round, stone room. Once Lila had followed him in completely, he touched a part of the wall, and the large, moving part of the wall returned to its resting place, leaving Lila and Donatello trapped in his home. "My brothers will be back soon, once they've taken care of the Foot. I had to take you out of harm's way." He gestured with his hands to no place in particular, but to the whole place. "Make yourself comfortable while we wait. Leo's going to have a lot of questions."


	2. Until Proven Guilty

Long minutes passed without any more words being exchanged. While she waited, Lila stood near the door where she had entered, not giving Donatello's offer to make herself at home any thought. She wasn't sure how she could do such a thing when she was used to wide open areas with the sky over her head. Now she found herself trapped in a cold, stinky, round room. Despite its size, it was still small in comparison to her old home. Not only was it confining, but it was alien to the cat-person as well. Every surface was constructed of the same stone-like material that comprised the stone jungle above her head. Her paw pads were rubbed raw from walking on the rough surface for the whole night, trying to save her pelt from what Donatello had called the Foot. She didn't know much about the place she had landed in, but she knew instantly that the Foot were bad people, while Donatello and his unseen brothers could still be considered her allies. But Lila was adamant in keeping herself safe, which meant that she had to be distrusting of him even though he had most likely saved her life two times over already.

As Donatello patiently waited for his brothers to return from up top, he first roamed around the room, idly passing by some of the things he often busied his mind with. He spent a rather large amount of time inside of his lab, but he never did much more than touch the projects he was working on before he moved on to do something else. Lila watched with large, blue-gray eyes as he paced about, but didn't comment about it. At first she found his actions peculiar and interesting, but as the wait lengthened, she soon grew bored and tired. When he had his back turned, she sunk to all four feet before silently padding over to a soft surface. Jumping up on to it, she curled up, her modified skeleton allowing her to make a tight ball. She appeared to be a rather large fluffy mound, especially since she had covered her face with her bushy tail.

When Donatello returned from the kitchen, he looked for Lila at the place that she had stood sentry, but couldn't find her. Pulled out of his thoughtless wandering state of mind, he jerked to awareness and did a quick once-over of the room until his eyes caught sight of the feline. Settling down as quickly as he worked himself up, he strode over and took a seat beside her on the worn-down couch. Leaning against an arm, he grabbed at the remote and flipped on the array of televisions, turning the sound down to a low level before scanning the news for anything strange. Often times the fights between the turtles and the Foot didn't make the news, but sometimes Donatello worried about it anyway; if any more of the humans found out about their existence, they would have to permanently find a new place to live.

Nothing on the television set satisfied the turtle, so he switched it off, gave a quick glance at the door, and then followed Lila's example and relaxed on the couch. He didn't expect sleep to come at all, but after only a couple minutes, he drifted off into a doze, his head leaning back on the back of the couch and his mouth wide open.

Lila was the first to lift her head out of alarm. The unfamiliar sound of the hydraulic door opening was enough to bring her to her feet and crouching in a corner, her fur fluffing up just as it had when the Foot ninja had surrounded her. Upon opening, a new wave of stench from the sewers reached her nose, as well as the excited chatter of another green turtle-man. Casting a wary glance at Donatello dozing on the couch, Lila tried to move her feet from the corner that she had taken cover in, but still found the fear of new people too great.

"Dude! That's the most Foot I've seen in months!" the excitable turtle exclaimed, turning around to walk backwards into the lair. A wide grin spread across his face as he studied his elder brothers. Both of them appeared to be slightly amused, though one was trying very hard to hide the fact. "And we kicked their _butts! _I bet they all went running home to their mamas."

"Mikey, that's enough," another sighed with a shake of his head. The entertained smile was still on his face, however, and it only egged Mikey on further.

"Why? You were there, Leo! I think we're getting better, 'cause it's never been so easy to drop so many ninja before." His three-fingered hand balled up out of excitement, his shoulders hunched together by his grinning face. "Now that's what I call fun!"

"So we've heard the whole trip back," the last turtle growled, frustration taking over the amusement. "What d'ya think we train for every day, huh?"

"Raph's got a point, Mikey. We practice so that we can stop the Foot from …" His sentence trailed off as he caught sight of Donatello. "Hey Don, how did things go for you?"

The dozing turtle slowly opened his eyes, and then blinked a couple of times. His three brothers watched with heightened curiosity as he pulled himself out of his snooze, completely unaware that the small being that they had saved from the Foot was watching them from near the television displays. Letting out a long yawn and stretching his arms above his head, Don slowly pulled himself up from the slumped sitting position of his sleep into a more alert position, but he didn't yet chance climbing to his feet. Blinking a couple more times to wipe the sleep from his eyes, he looked around at his brothers. For a long moment they stared at each other until Don spoke up: "What?"

Michelangelo burst into laughter, as if the simple question was the funniest thing in the world. Double over, he slapped his knee and stamped his foot, drowning out anything Leo or Raph would have to say with the echoes of his bellows. Raphael threw his hands up in the air, but after Mikey's outburst, he adopted a scowl and slapped his younger brother upside the head, quickly ending the hysterical laughter with a loud "ow!" Leo waited out his brothers' antics, crossing his arms over his plastron and staring over at Don. Once things had quieted down, thanks to Raph, he repeated the question, adding a little more detail so that Don could quickly pick up on the conversation the three of them were having without him.

"Oh, yeah, that." He scratched the back of his neck, still a little groggy from his nap. Apparently he had fallen asleep a little harder than he first expected, and he no longer had any clue as to how long his brothers were fighting the Foot without him. "She's fine."

Leo raised a brow out of confusion, his arms falling out of their position and to his sides. "She?" he clarified.

Raph grunted. "Great, Brainiac's got a girlfriend."

Don scoffed at Raph's comment, quickly thinking of a way to describe the events that occurred after he had left the fight to save the little mutant cat. He didn't want to spend too much time explaining, but he didn't want to leave any details out, either; the Foot were acting strangely again, and the four of them had to figure out why. "Yes, she. They were after a little mutant cat, but she's unsure as to why." After the sentence was out of his mouth, Donatello knew that he wouldn't be able to add anything more. From the looks on his brothers' faces, he could already tell that he was going to be bombarded with questions, and he'd have to answer them whether he liked it or not. Mikey's was the most curious and awed, and Don expected to hear the most out of him, but instead he started walking around the lair, crouched down a little as if to make himself less menacing. Don watched for a moment before his attention was redirected back to Leo and Raph, still standing in the middle of the lair.

"Where did she come from?" Leo inquired first.

"I'm unsure," Don replied uncomfortably, finally pushing himself to his feet. He glanced over to where Lila was taking her cat nap, but didn't find any evidence that she had been there at all. He hadn't asked her a lot of questions, and he was beginning to regret it, especially after bringing her to their home. Now that she had turned up missing, even though the turtles hadn't searched the place at all, his suspicions were beginning to rise, though he wouldn't show that that was the case. "When I found her, she was panicking, so I thought that ribbing her for answers wasn't a good idea. If I pressed too hard, I could have made the situation even worse."

"So where is she now, smart one?" Raph shot at Don, narrowing his eyes. Don gave a small shrug, hoping that his limited knowledge wouldn't infuriate Raphael any further than he had to be for such a small situation. "Ya think _snoozin's_ a good idea when you _lost_ the fu—"

Leonardo jumped to Don's rescue upon realizing what the next word out of Raphael's mouth would be. Raising his voice above Raph's angry one, he gave Don a stare of his own. "Raph has a point!" he shouted, and then added a much quieter tone, "Again…." The hot head appeared to be on a role for the night. Despite the fact that he came off as an angry lunatic with only himself in mind, Leo was aware that he was more soft and thoughtful on the inside. And tonight he apparently was thinking a little more straight than their typical go-to turtle. "Don, we need to find this mutant cat you rescued, both for our sake and hers."

"Her name's Lila," Don offered, as if her name would put the whole situation into balance. While he wasn't knowledgeable about her in the least bit, he did know her name.

"Right. We need to find Lila. Help us look for her. Do you think she could have gotten _out_ of our lair?"

"Hey dudes!" Mikey called, suddenly calling all of his brothers' attention back to him. In the abuse against Donatello, all three of them had forgotten about the youngest of them all. "I think I found her."

Donatello shifted to the side so that he could see around his brother, and then gave a curt nod. Giving a quickly look to Leo, he smiled. "Nope, I don't think she could have."

"Smart ass," Raph muttered, but curiosity got the better of him, too, and he shuffled forward to get a better look at their guest. _"That's_ what we were fightin' hundreds of ninja for?" His tone suggested that he wasn't too keen on the idea, even though the act had already passed.

"It appears so," Don replied, moving forward to pull Mikey back. "Mikey, you're crowding her. She's kind of shy."

"Hey!" he cried as if outraged, but then piped down. "I mean … sorry, dude." He shot a soft smile in the direction that Lila was hunched up at, although all that could be seen was a light gray, furry mass with her blue-gray eyes staring up at him. She slowly blinked at the four turtles at Michelangelo's apology, but otherwise didn't move. Donatello wasn't so sure whether or not it was from fear or something else.

Raph was the first to tear his eyes away from the newcomer, his characteristic scowl on his face. "Now what are we gonna do with her?" he growled, taking a few steps to distance himself from his brothers as well as Lila. "We're not just gonna keep her, are we?"

Leo turned so that his side was to the cat, keeping an eye on her in his peripheral. "I'm not sure, Raph. Don bringing her here limits the choices we have, but we'll find a way; we always do."

At the comment about his foolishness, Don lowered his face as if in shame, hiding his eyes from his brothers. Lila, however, kept watching him as silently as she had been during the whole ordeal. For a while no one spoke, but it was Mikey that eventually broke the silence. "Couldn't we … I don't know … be friends?"

"What?" Raph barked, temporarily unable to comprehend what Mikey meant by such a thing. Don lifted his eyes again to look at his naive and innocent brother, but kept his mouth shut to prevent further embarrassment.

"I think what Mikey's trying to say," Leo said slowly, "is that we should think of Lila as a person and assume she's friendly."

"Like innocent until proven guilty!" Mikey exclaimed happily, quickly warming up to the idea. "But it's friend until proven enemy."

"Any enemy of our enemy is our friend," Don concurred, possibly hoping that backing up Mikey would pull him out of the hole that he dug for himself. It was better to think up a reason for his actions now than have nothing.

Leo sighed, as if his mind was made up for himself. Turning to Raph, since he was the only one that hadn't agreed with the whole idea yet, he said, "We saved her, Don brought her home, now it's our job to make sure she's safe and out of the Foot's hands. That's that." Michelangelo added an enthusiastic nod to affirm Leo's statement.

Raph grunted, turning away completely. "I never said that I wanted to throw her out." With that being said, he walked away, making a beeline for his room. The four mutants left behind were silent once again until they heard the distinct sound of his door being slammed shut, closing him off from their little world.

Once he was gone, Leo turned back to Lila, kneeling down to her level. Holding out a hand, though not close enough to her so that she could claw it or bite it, he offered her a soft smile. "I'm Leonardo," he told her quietly, "a friend."

This got a reaction out of the oversized cat. She shifted her position, unwrapping her tail from around herself so that she resembled something more human. Although she didn't take Leonardo's hand, as she was unfamiliar with such a gesture, she did give him her full attention by looking him in the face. "I was listening," she said softly, her voice barely above a whisper.

Leonardo blinked out of embarrassment. He should have realized that she had human-level intelligence by the way that Donatello spoke, but he couldn't have fathomed it until he actually spoke with her. She wasn't like the other mutants that he was used to communicating with: his brothers, his Master Splinter, Leatherhead. Unlike them, she was more like the animal she resembled than like a human. Combined with her silence, he took her as a dim-witted animal rather than a mutant. "I'm sorry about—"

"And I'm not a … mutant," she interrupted, her voice gaining a little strength with the interruption. "I'm a _Homo silvestris."_

Michelangelo, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, piqued up: "A what?"

"It's a taxonomy classification," Donatello explained without a moment's hesitation. "Humans are _Homo sapiens,_ I'm not really sure what we are, and Lila here calls herself _Homo silvestris._"

"Uh … thanks," Mikey replied, though his voice suggested that Don's explanation didn't help him in the least bit. "You know, I think I'm going to go … do … I dunno." With the same uncertainty coating his tone, Michelangelo pointed off to his room before turning around and heading in that direction. Once he was a good distance away from Donatello, Leonardo and Lila, he picked up his pace before quietly retreating out of their view.

As soon as he was gone, Donatello turned back to Lila; Leonardo had never taken his eyes off of her. "Lila, where did you come from?" He expected that it couldn't have been far from New York City, and for many reasons. She spoke perfect English without a heavy accent, although an American accent was included. And although she claimed that she was not a mutant, Donatello was unaware of any mutant-like cat-humans running around anywhere. She very possibly could have been an experiment by someone employed by the Shredder, which would explain why the Foot were after her.

"I don't know," she told him, her voice very soft again. Although it appeared that she wanted to tear her eyes away from the pair of turtles, she kept her face held high, continuing the eye contact that was established. "We never had a name for it, but I know that it's far from here."

Donatello silently contemplated that information, skimming over the fact that she said 'we' instead of 'I.' It appeared that he could have been wrong with his initial inference.

"Lila, can we trust you?" Leo asked. It appeared to be such a silly question to ask, since anyone could have said yes and never meant it, but Leo had reasons for asking it. Because she was such an uneasy creature, she wouldn't have been able to hide much. In fact, her reaction was as readable as an open book.

She hunched her shoulders and cast her eyes downward out of shame. Although Leonardo didn't know the reason behind it, he kept silent until he got a verbal answer. After a moment, Lila raised her eyes again and gave him a small nod. "I don't want to cause your family pain."

Leo and Don exchanged a quick glance before Leo returned his gaze to her. "Then you're going to have to trust us." Again, he offered his hand, but it was ignored once again. "Lila, take my hand and follow me to some place comfortable." Even with the open invitation, she continued to stare at his hand, hunched up in the small form in the corner. Another small look at his younger brother, and Leo was able to get Don to coax her out of the corner.

"Come to my room," he offered to her, leading her off. Leo stood where he had been crouching to talk to Lila, watching their two forms walk off to Donatello's room before he looked around and retreated to his own. He wasn't sure about how this would all work out, but he was confident that the turtles wouldn't suffer too many damages.


	3. Whispers in the Night

Donatello hadn't known Lila for much longer than his other three brothers. He was the one that had physically saved her from the Foot, showing his face to pull her up from the ledge and lead her to the lair. They hadn't struck up much of a conversation because of her shy tendencies, so he couldn't say that he had been the friendliest out of the bunch, either. Although when Leo was trying to decide her fate, he had been talking about her in a couple different lights in order to stay on top of things as a leader. And then when it came to bed time, Mikey had already disappeared, because he seemed to be a good candidate for befriending her.

He rolled over on his bed, resting his cheek on his hand. The light from his alarm clock and the light creeping in from under the door allowed Don's trained eyes to scan around the floor of his bedroom until he found the dark shape of Lila curled up. He had offered her his bed without telling her that it was his, but she had quietly declined it. He didn't even have to press for an explanation, as she gave it: she was much more used to the floor instead of a fluffy cloud-like surface. He suspiciously let it slide, as she had taken a catnap on their couch, and allowed her to take one of his pillows and take residence among the many papers by his desk. He wasn't sure about the length of her stay, but if she was going to stay long at all, he'd have to do some serious convincing so she could be more comfortable around the lair.

Thinking that she was asleep, he continued to watch the very slight rise and fall of her sides, as he was unable to drift off to dreamland himself. Still lying on his side, he shifted slightly so that his arm wouldn't become numb after being shoved under his shell for so long, but after that he was still. His mind kept going through reasons as to why the Foot would want the cat. As far as he knew, the Shredder wasn't about to go around and pull together a mutant army. Granted, he wanted the turtles dead, but that was because they had meddled into his business far too much for his liking. What were teenagers for, after all?

At the thought of age, he blinked, his focus once again on Lila's form. He had been given her name, and he was aware that she didn't know the name of the place where she hailed from, but other basic information was currently denied to him. For the moment it was because she was in no state to talk, with her unconscious and all, but he wondered if she would ever give away her personal information away anyway. She had the private air around her, although Don was getting the feeling that she would tell him more than his brothers.

For the moment he shrugged that thinking off. His brain relatively unoccupied again, he found himself stifling a large yawn. Shifting again to cover his mouth with his hand, he blinked hard to clear his fuzzy vision.

Lila's ear flicked in his direction at the noisy yawn. Staying still so that he would no longer bug her, he waited for her ear to relax again, but it did not. Quietly so as not to wake her, he whispered, "Lila?"

"Yes?" Her reply was immediate without a trace of drowsiness. Perhaps he had been incorrect in thinking her asleep.

"You're awake," he observed stupidly. This statement caused her to lift her head up and twist it in his direction so that her big eyes were fixed on him.

"Yes," she confirmed anyway.

"Are you uncomfortable?" He couldn't help but be concerned, even after their hushed argument before he had flicked the lights off.

"No."

"Am I bothering you?"

"No."

"Then why are you awake?" Sleepiness wasn't becoming of the supposed genius. Besides, his knowledge rested in machinery and technology, not psychology.

"Because long periods of sleep aren't typical of my kind."

Before, when she had mentioned herself in the plural form, suggesting that there were more creatures such as herself, Donatello had ignored it. Now that the two of them were alone and calm, the fact couldn't be as easily skimmed over. "You mean that you're not unique?"

"Everyone is unique," she argued unsatisfactorily, but she appeared to have more to say. "But I said that I am a _Homo silvestris,_ and while our species is small, it is not as miniscule as one."

Her vocabulary was quite impressive from what Donatello was gathering, but that alone didn't help him. All of her explanations, while short, were begging more questions than answering them.

"How many of your species are there?" Don inquired, true curiosity showing through his voice. The sleepiness had been effectively forgotten after the conversation had become less one-sided.

"There are … four others of my kind," she replied, an obvious hesitation before stating the number. Don briefly wondered why, but he didn't press for an answer behind it. Instead, he simply hinted about his curiosity.

"Four? Are you sure?"

A pained sigh broke from her lips, and Don instantly regretted asking such a thing. "I had three great friends and a sister growing up, but a few years ago my sister fell in and passed away. It took a while for me to get over it, but … T—my friends helped me overcome the pain. Eventually the tom I was closest to fathered my kits." She hesitated even more here, the panic obvious in her eyes even in the nearly nonexistent light. "A-another one of the toms, he … he didn't like me having his kits and he … we … he's gone now, too."

Don tried his best to keep the suspicion from his own eyes at such a choppy history. He should have been happy that he was being told this information in the first place. As she continued her voice pitch had become higher, and her vocabulary had taken a turn for the worse. Pulling his mind away from the pessimistic thinking, he got to wondering how old she could be again, especially at the mention of having children.

"I don't mean to be rude," he began, pausing. A blink of her eyes encouraged him. "May I ask how old you are?" She acted like she had been around for her fair share of years, but she had an almost child-like air about her when mentioning her past.

"Seventeen years?" she replied, though the rise of her voice at the end caused Don to believe that she wasn't so sure about that. Even so, if that was close to her age, she had been around for nearly the same amount of time as him and his brothers. They weren't so sure about their exact age, either, so he couldn't give her any grief on being unsure.

"You act more maturely than that," Don complimented.

Her shoulders shrugged. "I have always been interested in language, though where I come from new words are hard to come by."

"Are you sure that you don't remember that place?"

"If I ever see it again, I'll recognize it, but to my knowledge it does not have an official name."

"Sorry for my nagging."

"It's no problem," Lila assured them. A silence stretched out between them, but Lila never relinquished the eye contact. Another yawn erupted from Don's mouth as their conversation settled down, and he was about to drift off to sleep, but her soft voice jerked him back to complete awareness. "The others … like you, do you have a name?"

"What do you mean?" Don asked to make sure he understood what she was asking of him.

"I am _Homo—"_

"Ah, yes. We call ourselves the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." He offered her a friendly smile at this, hoping it'd be to her liking. As he had realized earlier, he hadn't looked into their taxonomy, simply because they were mutated turtles. It was a genetic anomaly, and there weren't a whole lot of them.

"The 'teenage' part won't last forever."

"Well, no …"

He thought he saw a small flash of her teeth at this, as if he had been awarded a smile.

"Does this stone jungle have a name?"

It took Don a moment to figure out what she meant by stone jungle. Eventually it hit him that she was talking about the city. "New York," he replied, "sometimes called the Big Apple or the City that Never Sleeps." Too much information, Donatello; keep it simple.

She mouthed the names of the city after him, resting her head back on her front paws.

"That turtle wearing blue … he was cold and calculating at first, but once he talked to me he changed completely."

"That's Leonardo."

"I don't think he likes me."

Don was taken aback at this comment. He never thought that Leo would have animosity towards any of their invited guests. "I don't think it's that, Lila. Leo's … protective of the family. He keeps a close eye on all of us. Having to worry about your well being as well might seem a little daunting to him right now, that's all."

Lila lifted her head again, though not quite as high as before. "We'll see," she said calmly.

"I won't let him, or Raph for that matter, kick you out on the streets to fend for yourself against the Foot." Don was making a friend out of Lila, and the turtles didn't leave their friends to fend for themselves.

"Who's Raph?"

"The one that was yelling most of the time."

"Oh, him." Lila's eyes narrowed into comfortable slits. "I don't like him."

A smile tugged at the corner of Don's mouth. "It's hard to imagine why. He may not seem like the friendliest of mutants, but after you get to know him, you get to see through his hard-won mask."

"How long does that take?" Lila idly asked, lowering her head again, one ear still centered on Don.

"Depends on the person, I think. Michelangelo—the friendly, kind of clingy turtle—still is having a hard time finding the soft side of Raph."

Lila was silent again, and Don was beginning to feel too tired to break it. "You have an interesting family," she finally commented. "It's almost reassuring."

"How so?" It was probably one of the last questions Don was going to ask before he let things slide.

"It reminds me of home," Lila replied quietly. When Don didn't reply, her ear swiveled back to a more comfortable position, but he couldn't tell if she was asleep or not, just like before.

He wasn't sure if his family reminding her of home was a good thing or not, since she didn't seem to want to talk about it, but he took comfort in knowing that his family wasn't the craziest thing in the world. Sometimes some normality was a good thing.

The room was silent again save for their hushed breaths. Neither of them moved any longer as sleep sunk its silent claws into Donatello and pulled him to sleep. Even though he had taken a nap after getting Lila to safety, it apparently wasn't enough. He was a teenager, after all. Teenagers tended to have the habit of staying up late and ignore morning completely. Don was also known to spend absurd hours in his lab, fighting sleep with everything he had so that he could get a project finished. Whatever the case, he still welcomed sleep when it called to him. Within minutes his breathing had become more regular and deep, and would stay that way until he was ready to wake.


	4. Lessons and Treats

The smell of something burning reached Donatello's nose, which was the cause of his waking. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he pushed himself to a sitting position and glanced at his clock. It told him that it was later in the morning, but that he had only gotten a few good hours of sleep. Spinning around so that he could place his feet on the cold ground, he looked to the area where Lila had been sleeping. The area was vacant except for the pillow that she had rested against. Don searched his room from where he sat, hoping he would see her from there, but she had appeared to vacate the room while he had been sleeping. Letting out a morning yawn, Don opened the door to the main lair, not surprised at the hubbub that suddenly assaulted his ears.

"Mikey, what the shell are you doin', cookin' our food?" Raph's gruff voice demanded. By the sounds of it, he had been looking forward to whatever it was Michelangelo had insisted on cooking, but his hopes had been let down once it was burned into a black crisp.

"I'd like to see you try, Raphie," Mikey retorted sweetly, tossing him a toothy smile. He returned his attention to the frying pan, taking it off the burner to scoop the unintelligible, black pieces onto a plate. Raph took one look at the food, turned his nose up on it, and went searching through the cupboards to find the box of his favorite cereal.

Taking a seat at the table, Don peered at the plate as well, trying to figure out what it was that Mikey had fried beyond recognition. "Has anyone seen Lila?"

"What? The furball?" Raph grunted, pulling out a bowl with a clink. "Nope."

Don rolled his eyes at his brother, turning to look at Mikey with the same question.

"I haven't yet, but that's why I was cooking breakfast!" he chattered without as much excitement as usual with a downcast look at his failure.

"Mikey, speaking of that," Don began gently, gesturing toward the plate, "what was it?"

He shrugged, looking around so that he could figure out what to do with it. "If I told you, it would be even more disappointing." Don patted him gently on the shell to express his condolences for the lost meal. He flashed his elder brother a warm smile as if in thanks before busying himself once again.

"Have the three of you eaten?" Leo's voice cut into the more or less cheery air of the kitchen. Don shifted in his seat, his foot up on the seat of the chair and his arm propped up on the back, to look at him. Raph stuck a spoon in his mouth and slowly lowered it to the bowl again as his answer. Mikey pretended as if Leo hadn't spoken at all and continued to mess with the cupboard doors.

"Working on it, Leo," Don replied for the group of them, since no one else had stepped up to the task. "What's going on?"

Leo didn't move to make himself more comfortable, standing in the door of the kitchen with a stiff posture. "Sensei wants to get some practice in before we head out again tonight."

"Whaddya mean?" Raph demanded, the sharp click of his spoon audible over Mikey's rummaging. "We're gonna be practicin' all day?"

Despite the simmering anger in Raph's eyes, Leo didn't flinch as he stared right on back. The display between them was a common sight in the lair, no matter how much any of them tried for peace. "I don't know if you haven't noticed, Raph, but the Shredder has something on his mind again. Since we don't know what it is yet, we have to stay on our toes."

"This sounds more like one o' your ideas," Raph spat, "not Master Splinter's."

"Ah-ha!" Mikey exclaimed softly in the background, apparently finding what he had been looking for. Don had zoned out of his surroundings while the tensions were high, his elbow propped up on the table and his head resting in the palm of his hand.

"I don't care what you think about it, Raph," Leo replied coolly. He always had a knack for staying calm when no one else could hold on to their marbles. "This is for your own good."

A cynical laugh escaped from Raph's mouth, followed by the ragged sound of his chair being pushed outward across the floor. "My own good, Leo?" he sneered. He moved to attack Leo, but before he could even take a step it was Michelangelo that intervened.

Stuffing a rice crispy treat into his brother's mouth, he looked at him with eager eyes. "Well, what you think?" he asked, acting as if he was unaware of Raph's outraged face. The turtles gave him a lot less credit than he deserved when it came to his emotions.

Grabbing the crispy treat with two fingers, Raph stared at it like it was some kind of poison. "What the shell is this?" he demanded crossly.

"A crispy treat. I thought you'd like it 'cause you love that cereal and all," Mikey replied kindly. "Snap, crackle, pop! Rice Krispies."

Don pulled himself out of his reverie and focused on the conversation between Mikey and Raph, surprised that Raph hadn't taken a swing at the youngest brother. It almost looked like he was torn between his misdirected anger and his compassionate side. Instead, he stared at the treat again and eventually popped it into his mouth without an expression change.

"Now where is he?" Raph mumbled around the cereal and marshmallow. He looked over the place where Leo had been standing, but he had disappeared as silently as the shadows.

"Raph, finish up your cereal and do what he asks for once," Don butted in quietly. "Would it kill you to make things easier for all of us by containing your explosive anger?"

Raph blinked in surprise at Don's intervention; normally the turtle kept to himself when sparks were flying. Shaking it off, he tossed him a half-assed snarl before throwing himself in his chair again and wolfing up the rest of his soggy cereal that he had poured.

Michelangelo appeared to be quite proud at how his interruption had ended up. Throwing a triumphant smirk at Don, he said, "See! I can cook _something."_

"You're lucky Raph didn't cave your face in," Don replied. Standing up to look over the red masked turtle's head, he gestured toward the pan the treats were in. "Mind if I have one? So it's not healthy, but I don't care this morning."

"Sure!" Mikey piqued, glad that his brothers appreciated what he did for once. Scooping a piece out for Don, he handed it over, watching as it was devoured with an expectant look about him.

"What?" Don asked upon finishing. He began licking his fingers to remove the sticky marshmallow from them.

"Well, how was it?"

"Like a rice crispy treat, Mikey." Mike's grin widened as he danced around the kitchen in glee. "Lay off the caffeine, Mike," Don suggested with a smile.

"Huh?" Michelangelo paused, throwing a clueless look at Don.

Don shook his head. "Never mind."

Mikey then rounded on Raph to ask him about the treat. One look at his child-like face halted the growl in Raph's throat, but he still shifted to push the bubbly turtle away from him. Not bothered by the display, Mikey finally found the heart to toss away the black scraps that he had friend and instead munched on a square cut-out of the rice crispy treats.

As soon as the three of them were finished, they exited to the main lair to find Splinter, Leo and Lila side-by-side, waiting for them. The three turtles exchanged curious glances. Mikey's face still bright, he was the one that spoke up first: "Are we doing the mamba or something? I always wanted to learn."

"Mikey … a mamba's a type of snake," Don corrected. "And the mambo isn't a line dance, if that's what you were thinking." This information appeared to bring Mikey's mood down a couple levels, as his face became more neutral.

"My sons," Splinter called to get their attention. All four of them turned their eyes toward the rat. He offered them all a gentle smile at their silence. "Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo will train under my watchful eye. Leonardo, you will help Lila learn some basic self-defense."

Raphael's mouth dropped a second before it started spewing out angry words. "You're gonna teach her how to fight?" he cried incredulously. "Master Splinter, we don't even know who she is! Why are you gonna trust her enough t' teach her?"

Splinter retained a passive face at his son's explosion, even though he was disappointed his son wasn't seeing clearly. "If the Shredder is indeed after her," Splinter reasoned, "she needs to learn as much as she can in order to survive. We do not know how much time she has to learn the skills necessary to fend off opponents, but we must help her to the extent of our abilities. I expect you to respect my decision in allowing her refuge, and if you have any further concerns to approach me at a later time."

Raphael opened his mouth again as if to argue, but a stern look from his master caused him to shut it again, albeit angrily.

"Now follow me, my sons, and let us learn …" Splinter's voice trailed off as he made his way to the dojo. Mikey, Don and a begrudging Raph followed him like a mother duck and her ducklings.

Once they were out of sight, Leo turned to the cat beside him. "How do you feel about this?" he asked her, hoping that she wouldn't outright reject him like the night before.

"I'm not prone to violence," she replied smoothly, her whiskers twitching. "But if your sensei believes that this is what is best for me, I will do what I must."

Leo admired her brave words, though he wasn't sure how she would be able to back them up. "Let's start with finding out what you do know. Have you learned any self defense before?"

Lila thought about it for a moment, and then shook her head. "I normally run instead of fighting. When I am backed into a corner with no way out, though, I typically rely on instinct alone."

She would probably be a piece of work, teaching her enough so that she could even think of holding her own against a single Foot ninja. He wasn't sure what Splinter was hoping to get out of giving her lessons, but unless they had months, Leo wouldn't be able to get very far in her training. "Alright. Do as I do." He dropped into a defensive stance. His feet were square and solid as he turned his side to her so that he was showing a small amount of surface area to her. Lifting up his arms in a guard position, he looked over to see how she was doing.

Lila looked over his positioning, a couple of her sharp teeth visible as she bit her lip. Rising from her four paws to her two hind feet, she tried her best to mimic the stance. Leonardo had to drop his stance and correct hers, but she hadn't done a bad job in the first place. "Now look, I can't push you over," he told her, giving her a hard shove to demonstrate his point.

The two of them continued their lesson even after the other four emerged from the dojo. Leo taught Lila the basics of almost any self defense art. The stance, a simple punch and kick, as well as a couple ways to get away from someone if they grabbed her but did not attack.

"What happens if one of the Foot comes at me with a sword?" Lila asked, eyeing up one of the katanas sheathed on Leo's back.

Leo drew in a breath. He knew that it would be an important skill to acquire if she was facing a ninja one-on-one, but it was more difficult and wouldn't have come in typical training for a long time to come. Looking behind him to find one of his brothers, he called over Michelangelo for a demonstration. Once he ambled over to join the pair, Leo explained, "I'm going to attack Mikey—"

"What?" Michelangelo exclaimed, his eyes wide. "Uh-uh, I just got done—"

"Mikey, I'll be playing a Foot soldier. They're no problem, right? Think of our fight last night."

"Oh, okay. But, dude …"

Returning to his explanation, Leo decided to start over. "I'm going to attack Mikey, and he's going to disarm me without weapons. I don't expect you to master this skill yourself, Lila, but he'll show you how it's done." Lila nodded to show that she understood.

Drawing a sword, Leo eyed up the tense Mikey before attacking in the most obvious of manners. Swinging his sword around, he took a step forward so that he didn't have to reach as far. Mikey, ever the quick thinker if he ever put his mind to it, ducked the swing and got in close to Leo so that his sword was obsolete. Grabbing his wrist and his forearm, he twisted the katana out of his hand before he could do much else. Once he had it in his own hand, Mikey held it triumphantly over his head.

"Hey, Mike," Leo called, grabbing his brother's attention again. "Well done." Turning to Lila, he kept an eye out for Mikey while he still had his sword in his hand. "The trick is to get in close so that they can't swing the blade at you," he explained. "You don't have to disarm the ninja like Mikey did to me, but you can use your claws against them as well." Lila nodded again, once again quiet. "But … I wouldn't suggest you do it. You'll have to have quick reflexes and a master control over your body so that you don't get cut. You're best off sticking near to one of us or running to avoid them."

"Dude … can we try that again?" Mikey asked after Leo was finished speaking. A crazy gleam was in his eye, apparently still happy that he had disarmed Leo so easily. Smirking, Leo nodded, glad that his brother was willing to practice for once. Then again, he had hooked him in by making it easy the first time. Pulling out his other katana, he motioned for Mikey to strike.

"No, if I have a sword you'll beat me like a little minion dude on the video games." Although Leo didn't have much of a clue of what Mikey was talking about, he didn't let it show.

"Try it, Mikey, you might like it," Leo replied. He caught Lila taking a few surreptitious steps away from the brothers, though she didn't sneak off completely.

"I thought I wasn't supposed to have a weapon." He did have a point with that one.

"Fine, give it back and we can try it again." As soon as the sword was handed over, Leo sheathed it and held his other one still for the split second he needed to decide what to do. He took a little more complex direction with his attack, first feigning a strike to Mikey's right, and then spinning around with lightning speed to Mikey's right. To his slight surprise despite the expectation that Mikey would make it out alright, Mikey was no longer in the spot Leo had anticipated. Hesitating for a moment, Leo found his brother again. Dashing forward to engage, Leo's hand was stopped in mid-swing by Michelangelo's forearm. With a calculated kick to Leo's plastron, he was pushed backwards and off-balance. Taking advantage of his brother's blunder, Mikey dealt the last blow by skillfully kicking the blade from Leo's hand.

"Ha! I win again," he bragged.

"Winner helps loser up," Leo shot back, holding out a hand. A dangerous smile on his face, Mikey took the offered hand and pulled Leo to his feet, even going so far as to fetch his sword.

"Dude, better luck next time!" he called before skipping off to the kitchen.

Putting the second sword back in its sheath, Leo turned to face Lila again. "Mikey's a show-off," he explained, and then motioned to the kitchen. "Have you eaten yet today?"

"No." She padded over to Leo, expecting that they would head off to the place of many smells together. He waited for her to join him on the way over, and once they were side-by-side again, he matched her pace to the room.


	5. Run to Remember

The turtles left Lila behind with Splinter as they wandered through the sewers, eventually surfacing in a known safe spot. Even so, Leo held carefully onto the ladder supporting the four brothers, peeking through the manhole cover to make sure that no one was around before pulling himself out into fresh air. An audible sound of relief was heard as Raph climbed out, quickly followed by Don and Mikey. Once they were all out, the manhole cover was silently replaced, Leo taking the lead to the rooftops. Often times the four of them had quiet conversations as they darted around the city, but tonight was different than most, as none of them opened their mouths to object to Leo's path of choice.

Mikey's hopes were beginning to rise as the minutes ticked by. Although he wasn't one to enjoy an exercise around the rooftops, especially under Leo's critical eye, he would much rather have an uneventful run and have Leo crow about it later than have to butt heads against the Foot clan. Sometimes it felt like the guys didn't even have a plan when they suddenly appeared to throw themselves into battle. The turtles kept mowing them down, but they never seemed to take the hint. More so, the Shredder never took the hint and continued to throw his minions at the small group. It was like he knew that they were worthless, so he was willing to expend them in pointless battle.

The turtles had completed a whole training run before Raph spoke up, though their feet never stopped moving. "Leo, this is pointless," he panted, because even the fittest of people couldn't go on forever. "We're not goin' t' find answer this way."

Although Leo couldn't turn to face his brother as they ran, Raph didn't have to see his face with the tone in his voice. "I haven't heard any plausible suggestions from you." He had heard Raph mention storming Shredder's tower, but that would have been suicide, even if Mikey claimed the Foot were becoming less skilled. If that was even the case, the turtles still had their hands full every time they came face-to-face with the Shredder himself.

"I always could have tried hacking," Don suggested uncertainly, adding his voice to the breathless conversation. Only Leo appeared to be unbothered by the pace he was setting.

"That's a good fallback plan," Leo assured him, trying to keep his statements short to quiet the dialogue. It wasn't that he didn't mind hearing their opinions, though Raph's a little less willingly than Don's or Mikey's, it was because he would much rather concentrate on the goal at hand instead of becoming distracted with bickering. His brothers, however, appeared to have a different agenda.

A scowl passed over Raph's face. "Don't hackin' into computers take time? An' who's ta say that the Shredder's stupid enough to type his plans up. Just 'cause Donny does it don't mean that everyone does."

Leo didn't comment on Raph's argument, since he had a good point yet again. The boy was thinking a little straighter than normal, because Leo didn't remember him making such sound arguments before. In the not so far away past, Raph had been the one to act first and ask questions later. He and his brothers would suffer the consequences later.

"At least hacking is safer than barging into a stronghold without any clue as to what we're looking for. Last I checked, the need to find out the reason behind the Foot wanting Lila was not the highest priority over anything else," Don coolly replied. Before Raph could even think of a reply, he picked up his pace so that he was closely following Leo, leaving Raph in his dust.

Another circuit the turtles often ran was finished, all of them beginning to feel the energy loss. Mikey complained, and while Don silently agreed, he figured that it would be best for him to keep his beak tightly shut this time. Much to their glee, Leo regretfully agreed to turn back and head on home. Raph looked a little disgruntled at the announcement, but he kept his mouth closed as well.

After a quick run over the rooftops, Leo eventually slowed their progress so that his brothers could catch their breaths. While Mikey and Don relaxed in the back of the pack, Leo found himself bristling with tension, like he knew something would happen. A glance over at Raph didn't help; the turtle's normally open face was guarded and allowed no emotion through.

Upon reaching the last building of the run, all four of the turtles stopped and crowded around the fire escape, waiting for Leo to move his feet to allow the rest of them down. When he didn't move, his eyes fixed on something in the horizon, the others didn't have to take long to guess to figure out what his problem was. Raph, Mikey and Don all followed Leo's gaze to confirm their suspicions.

"It's nice of them to give us a head's up," Mikey commented, his hands already holding his nunchucks at the ready. "I mean, it's like helping a fellow ninja out."

Raph emitted a low growl, moving into a fighting stance with sias at the ready. The rumble of his voice was joined with the quiet rasping of Leo's swords being released from their sheaths.

The four brothers didn't have to wait long at all for the suspense to end and the battle to begin. The Foot they had kept their eyes upon quickly covered the distance and threw themselves at the outnumbered ninja with determination. Don and Mikey took the front of the attack, as they had been waiting in to unload off of the building last, but that didn't mean that Raph and Leo wouldn't jump in with a fierceness to be reckoned with.

Leo blocked two attacks from separate ninja simultaneously, catching the blades of their tachi with his katanas. A calculated swipe disarmed the two of them. Before either masked man could get away, a less than flashy maneuver slashed both of them across an artery. They'd bleed out quickly so that Leo could deal with the rest of the crowd.

His other brothers were wrapped up in their own circles of Foot, though Don appeared to have the widest birth thanks to his bo staff. Raph and Leo had the most bodies around them, with an accumulation of both live and dead around Leo. The turtle was ducking, spinning and jumping to outsmart his opponents, and he thought that it had paid off in the end when the ninja he culled were no longer replaced. A vertical slash to another Foot's torso permitted Leo enough concentration to shout out to his brothers. Unfortunately for him, before he could do such a thing, he faced an enemy with skill to match his own.

Leo thought that he could return to his brothers' sides to help them with their fight, but as he made a bloody path toward them, an unseen attacker struck. Leo, already feeling pain from various nicks and a couple deep gashes from Foot he had already taken care of, didn't notice the acute pain until it rendered him harmless.

Fuzziness began to border his vision, and the sounds of the battle subsided. His katanas dropping from his grasp, Leo first fell to his knees because of the sudden weakness before falling completely on his front side, his eyes closed as if asleep.

"Leo!" Michelangelo shouted, dealing a strong sideways attack to a Foot soldier to knock him aside. "Cover me!" he shouted back at Raph and Don, stuffing one nunchaku in his belt to free a hand. Within a couple strides and almost slipping on a Foot ninja's back, Mikey had dropped to his knees beside his brother, flipping him over to find the source of his perilous injury. When he couldn't find anything, Mikey's usually cheerful face became terrified. "Dudes, we gotta get Leo out of here."

_"Workin'_ on it, Mike," Raph grunted, lunging forward to shove a sai in a Foot's chest. From beside him, Donatello cleared a great number of the ninja away with a strong swipe of his bo.

As if the battle was finished with a clear winner, the ninja suddenly darted away, melding instantaneously with the shadows around them. Don stood dumbstruck for a moment, staring off in a space where he had last saw a man. Raph, on the other hand, let out a content huff and slapped his purple-banded brother on the shell, returning his attention to the present. "Wake up," he advised, stalking over to their fallen brother. "What happened?"

"I dunno," Mikey replied, the fear plain in his voice. "I saw him … he just fell, Raph. I didn't see a ninja get him or anything."

"Move aside," Don ordered, pushing his way between Mikey and Raph to get a better look at Leo. He quickly looked over the wounds that he had acquired, but saw nothing of immediate concern. He opened his mouth to comment, but snapped it shut when he saw Mikey's expectant eyes, hoping that his know-it-all brother would have the answer. "Help me get him back to the lair," he said instead, avoiding the falling look on Mikey's face.

"Is it safe ta, ya know, move him?" Raph asked, stepping around Leo's unconscious body to help Don out.

Although he tried to cover it up, Don's hesitation was still obvious to Mikey. Any hope that he had had in his eyes was now gone as he watched silently from where he crouched. "We have to do it anyway," Don replied, neither giving a positive or negative response to Raph's question. "And we need to hurry before more Foot show up."

"I don't think ya gotta worry 'bout that one, egghead," Raph assured him, helping by lifting one of Leo's shoulders. "They shoved off themselves."

"Even so, I need a close inspection of Leo's injuries inside the lair." Slinging an unconscious Leo's arm around himself, Don did his part in carrying their eldest brother down a fair number of ladders and through even more murky tunnels. Mikey didn't say a single word as he trailed behind, slinking off to his room upon entering the lair. "Over here," Don said, leading the way to Leo's room. He didn't have any other place to put the unconscious turtle. The two of them gently laid their brother on his covers, looking down silently at his slumbering face. "Someone needs to go tell Splinter," Don excused, sliding out of the room to seek out their master.

Raph stayed where he was, finding a chair to sit in to watch over his brother. At the soft padding of feet he glanced up, expecting to see his sensei, but instead saw Lila. "What the fuck you want?" he glowered.

Ignoring his crude choice of words, Lila passed him so that she was beside Leo. "If this is because of me," she said softly, her voice suggesting that she was holding her own dam of emotions, "then I want no part of your protection. You have welcomed me with open arms, given me a place to live, but I knew from the beginning that it was temporary. My passing should not mean—"

"Don't finish that sentence," Raph cut in, surprised at the cat's feelings. He wasn't the most subtle of beings, but he was catching that Leo's injury meant more to her than a hurt friend. Something had happened that she was trying to cover. "Just 'cause Leo's down for the count don't mean ya gotta leave. Let the others decide when they're done watchin' over ya."

More footsteps were at the door, this time belonging to Splinter. He didn't appear to be rushed or very worried, but Lila thought that she could see through his mask and silently excused herself, leaving as quickly as she came. Splinter took his son's hand quietly in his own, looking into his face despite knowing that he'd see nothing there.

"Sensei," Don said lightly, "I need to see if I can find out why this happened." He stood in the doorway with a medical kit in hand.

"Of course, Donatello." Splinter took a step back to allow Don the space he needed, but never left the room.


	6. No One's Fault

Things were quiet for the rest of the night around the turtles' lair. Lila kept to herself to keep from bugging her newfound friends, knowing what it felt like to lose someone close. She understood that Leonardo wasn't actually dead, but from the frantic look on each of the brothers' faces, she knew that none of them were exactly sure of what had happened while they had been topside. Fear of the unknown was up there on a list of the worst feelings to have. It was a good thing that the turtles were trained to work around the unknown and still come out on top. If the same could have been said for Lila, she could have saved herself from a lot of grief in her life.

"I've done all I could," Donny stated sadly, taking a step away from Leo's bed. "I don't know …" He trailed off, unable to continue his sentence. His brothers and sensei in the room could guess what he was hinting at. Despite the thorough examination, Don hadn't found a single thing wrong that could have caused the coma.

Raph stared at his brother from the only chair in the room. Leo didn't have a huge collection of things, unlike his brothers, so his room had a minimalistic feel. He had a bookshelf with a various collection of books, both English and Japanese. He had a small wooden desk with a simple chair to sit at, which was what Raph had snagged. Other than that, he had a simple bed, currently occupied by him. Splinter was back to kneeling on the floor beside his son's unconscious body. Donatello was standing in the middle of the room with his head bowed. Michelangelo had recently taken a place in Leo's door, quieter now than he ever had been.

"We've been in worse situations than this," Raph grunted after a long period of silence. "Right?"

Don nodded. "Yeah … I guess we have."

"He'll pull himself out of it," Mikey added with faked enthusiasm. "He's always been there for us."

None of them had anything further to add, so the silence continued yet again. Mikey was vaguely aware of Lila passing by the room to get to Don's room so that she could sleep, but he didn't stop her to say hello or to give her company. Eventually Don kicked himself into action again, but when no one asked about what he was doing, he didn't give any explanation. All of them figured that it was for Leo, since Don exited and entered the room various times. Mikey sidled off after an hour or so to retreat to his room, checking in on his eldest brother between comic books. Even Splinter padded off to the kitchen to fetch himself a cup of tea, leaving Raph alone in the room with Leo.

As soon as Raph was aware of that fact, he walked closer to Leo's side, dropping down to his padded knees at the bed's side. "Hey bro … whoever, whatever did this to ya … I'm gonna make 'em pay. They—"

Michelangelo at the door made him stop in mid-word as he jumped to his feet, pretending that he hadn't been doing such a thing as talking to his sickly brother. His eyes skimmed over the books right as Mikey leaned in the doorway.

"Dude, you can't even read the titles of half of those books."

"Jus' 'cause you ain't paid attention in Japanese doesn't mean the books are worthless," Raph shot back, though a little uncertainly. No one would catch Raph dead with a book in his hand, so why was he defending them so hard?

Mikey raised a brow as well, but eventually shrugged it off, looking to his other brother instead. "I miss him already."

"You would. Grow up like a man."

This time the look Mikey threw at Raph wasn't one of curiosity, but of annoyance. "I think you're mistaken. It's you that has to grow up to learn empathy."

Raphael blinked at such a large word coming out of his younger brother's mouth. "You think empathy's gonna help us in a fight?"

"How should I know? But we're a family, aren't we?" Michelangelo crossed his arms, appearing quite determined instead of his normally goofy self.

A snort came from Raph, accompanied with a shake of his head. "Sure, whatever ya gotta tell yourself, Mike."

"What? I don't think it's so far-fetched."

"You're an optimist, that's why."

"I'd rather be an optimist than live my life all grumpy like you." Michelangelo knew that a lot of Raph's attitude was a cover-up because he cared for his family, but sometimes even the brothers forgot about that. It didn't help when his anger was often misdirected and caused him to turn on them.

Raph grunted, not coming up with much to cover himself up on this one. Mikey, already sensing his win, found his wide and toothy grin again before ignoring Raph altogether. As soon as Mikey's eyes were off of him, Raph crossed the room to sit in his chair again, showing just how much concern he had for his elder brother despite the fact that they rarely got along.

Suddenly Mikey whipped around, grabbing Raph on the forearm. A wild look on his face was thrown at Raph before he gaped back at Leo's bed.

Ripping his arm out of Mikey's grip, Raph asked, "What the hell's wrong with you?"

"Leo! He just … he just moved!"

"Shout it out for the world t' hear," Raph replied sarcastically with a roll of his eyes.

"No really, look!" Mikey pointed with the hand not fumbling for a grip on Raph's arm again. This time Raph didn't pull away, his full attention now on Leo. It appeared that Mikey was correct.

Leo shifted on the bed, his hand brought up to touch the pillow underneath his head. His feet moved up the sheets so that his knees were in the air, but they quickly slid back down again when Leo got a good look at his brothers. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but shut it again with a confused expression on his face. Both of his brothers were silent, as if they were dreaming and didn't want to wake themselves up. "How … how did I get here?" Leo inquired softly, his brows still pulled together.

_"Leo!"_ Mikey shouted, letting go of Raph to run across the room and pull Leo into a hug, even though he was still more or less lying down. "Leo! Leo! Leo! Leo!"

Raph got to his feet, walking over to the bed much more slowly as if in a trance. Once he discovered Mikey's voice wouldn't stop chanting Leo's name, he whacked him upside the head, ending the chattering with a subdued ow. "Ya remember what happened?" Raph asked, though he figured that Leo would, since he was confused as to why he woke up in a soft place.

"Yeah. We were fighting the Foot, and they, uh … they wouldn't stop coming. I went to help you, but I didn't make it."

Raph shrugged. "Yup, sounds right t' me."

No one had verbally answered Leonardo's question, but everyone in the room assumed that he had figured it out himself. The wrinkles around Leo's brow smoothed out, looking as if he was calmer now that he had everything situated in his head. Mikey was jumping around the room excitedly, probably loud enough to wake the whole city of New York. His antics did not go unnoticed by Donatello.

"Mikey, what's wrong with you?" Donatello greeted crossly, poking his head in the room. "Leo—" He cut his words short as he finally set his eyes on Leo. "Oh." Rushing forward, pushing past a bouncing Mikey, he squatted down beside Leo's bed. "How are you feeling?"

Leo looked at Don for a long while before answer. "I'm a little tired, but I feel fine."

Don nodded. "That's understandable. Are you thirsty at all? Can I do anything for you?"

"No, I'm fine," Leo repeated, still staring at Don's face. "Who are you?"

The previously excited Don stood up and took a step back away from the bed. Behind him, Raph and Mikey exchanged confused looks before staring Leo down just as he had Don. "What?" Don sputtered, hurt already spreading across his face. He didn't think Leo would kid about such a thing.

"I don't … I don't know you, do I?"

"Leo, quit jokin' around," Raph growled, not as angrily as he normally would have done. "Donny's your brother."

"Yeah, you remember him. You gotta," Mikey chimed in, trying not to let worry sneak into his voice.

Leo closed his eyes and rubbed a thumb against his lids, still not moving to sit up completely. "No, I don't remember." Lowering his hand, he sought to catch Donny's eyes again, but the sensitive genius had already looked away to hide just how much Leo's words got to him. "I'm sorry," he eventually apologized, giving up on eye contact.

"Right." Don exhaled slowly, making his way to the door again. "I'll be … I need some sleep," he amended, disappearing completely from the room. Three thunderstruck turtles stared after him until Mikey snapped himself out of it.

"So, uh, you remember who we are, right?" he asked, pointing between himself and Raph.

"Yeah. You're Mikey, and he's Raph." The response was immediate and genuine without any of the previous worry clouding his eyes. "Donny's my brother?" He nodded to himself, seeing how it could be true, but unsure as to how he could have forgotten a part of his family. If he remembered correctly, he tried to be close to all of his brothers and understand where all of them were coming from. It didn't make sense for him to forget someone that was dear to him unless something terrible happened between the two of them.

"Okay, just checking," Mikey piqued before falling silent again. He rubbed the top of his head before letting his hand fall to his side.

The awkward silence was broken as Splinter reentered the room. Only the soft tapping of his walking stick brought the turtles awareness to his presence. "Leonardo. I see that you are awake again."

"Yes," Leo replied tentatively, eyeing up Splinter.

Mikey clapped a hand to his mouth, jumping back so that he could have both Leo and his Master Splinter in his line of sight. "You remember sensei, right, Leo?"

Splinter looked around at Mikey, not understanding what the youngest of his sons was trying to say. He didn't voice anything out loud, but his face spoke more loudly than he would have.

"No," Leo confirmed, looking downwards as if in shame. "I remember the Shredder and the Foot and you two …"

Keeping his distance, Splinter studied Leonardo, his expression having closed up without giving anything away. "I will revisit you soon," he informed him, turning around to leave. As soon as he was gone, Mikey belted Leo with questions.

"How can you _not_ remember him? You're, like, Splinter Junior! Are you sure you remember me? This isn't some bad joke, is it? Leo …" His voice trailed off in a whine, all traces of his earlier joyousness gone.

Leo shook his head, keeping his emotions in check just as much as his master had, even though he didn't remember the rat. "I don't know, Mikey!" he exclaimed, causing both Raph and Mikey to frown. "I don't mean to forget them, it just happened."

A pout formed on Mikey's face as he inched away from Raph so that he wouldn't be slapped again, just in case. "Leo … can I give you a hug?" Without waiting for a reply, he threw himself at his brother again, hugging tightly as if he would lose him. Discovering that he didn't know Don and Splinter was bad enough, he couldn't imagine how it would feel if Leo didn't remember him.

Leo patted his younger brother on the back of the shell, unable to pull away from the tight squeeze. Over Mike's shoulder, he gazed at Raph, who was turning to leave the room as if his business was done. "I know dealing with others isn't your thing, Raph, but would you check in on"—he paused as he tried to recall his forgotten brother's name—"Donny, please? I didn't mean to hurt him, but before he left …" His implications weren't lost on Raph.

"Whatever," Raph grunted as he, too, left the room, leaving a leech-like Mikey alone with Leo.

"Uh, Mike, you can let go now," Leo wheezed after a while. "You're crushing my shell."

Mikey eventually pulled away, though not of his own will. "Sorry, dude." Although he didn't have anything to say, the shock of learning Leo's condition too much for him to handle at the moment, he didn't move from Leo's side.

"What time is it?" Leo prompted after a long pause with no conversation.

"I dunno. Late."

Leo sighed, already assuming the role of older brother despite the fact that he was still in his bed after a terrible event. "Go to bed, Mikey. You'll need your sleep for tomorrow."

Mikey raised his innocent eyes to Leo's face. "Why?"

Shrugging, Leo said, "I'm not sure. It's just a feeling. Besides … sensei will be joining me shortly."

Mikey nodded, coming to the decision that leaving Leo and Splinter alone was a good idea. "Okay. Get better, got it?" With that, he turned his back and slowly made his way to his own room.

Snuggling down into his bed, Leo waited for his next visitor to arrive. It didn't take long for Splinter to come back into Leonardo's room and sit on the edge of the bed. When Splinter didn't say anything, Leo said softly, "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, Leonardo," Splinter assured, patting Leo's knee. "Don't worry yourself."


	7. Chats of Comfort

Lila lifted her head from the pillow when Donatello opened his door to his room. Her cat-like eyes instantly adjusted to the change of light, and while it was hard to make out his expression, his body posture was unmistakably down. "I don't mean to prod," she began, quickly receiving Don's attention, "but would you like to talk?" While Lila wasn't much of a talker herself, she did like to listen. Plus, she was already feeling comfortable around the turtle that had offered his room as hers as well as saved her life from the black evil men.

"It's okay, Lila, I'm fine," Don replied, shutting the door behind him as silently as he walked.

Lila followed him with her eyes as he sat down on the edge of his bed, his shoulders hunched over as he stared off into the black wall across the room. "I beg to differ." She lifted herself up to her four feet and padded over to sit on the floor beside Don's feet. Resting her fluffy cheek against his nearest shin, she said, "Anyone can see that something is eating at you. When such a thing happens, it is best to let it out, especially to friendly ears."

Don looked down at her, the sadness as plain as day despite the near pitch darkness in his room. "It's my brother," he told her softly.

The muscles in Lila's body tensed at the statement as she automatically assumed the worst. She'd had experiences with family dying, and she knew that it wasn't an easy thing to get over. "Leonardo?" she guessed.

Don nodded, covering his face with his hands. "He woke up."

Curiosity took over Lila's face, her body relaxing a little. She didn't know what was so wrong with him waking up. In her opinion, that was a good thing. From what she observed earlier, Don and Leo got along quite nicely. "That's not what's bothering you," she prodded softly, hoping that she was once again correct.

If Don hadn't had his face buried in his hands, he would have nodded. "No," he confirmed verbally, his voice muffled by his own flesh. "It's … he's not the same."

Lila bit her lip, wondering what he could have meant. Even though he probably didn't mean it, the message was cryptic. "How so?" She almost dreaded the answer, her history flashing back before her eyes.

Don took in a shuddering breath, trying very hard to keep a grip over himself. "He doesn't remember me," he whispered so quietly Lila had a hard time making out his words. When she finally did, she blinked out of surprise before shifting her position. Crouched on her haunches, she set a hand on his knee, her eyes ready to catch his eyes if he ever looked up.

"I'm sorry," she murmured almost as quietly.

"Leo's always been there for all of us. Of course we've been through tough times with the Shredder on our tails and alien hunters and …" He took in a deep breath, making sure that he didn't overstep Lila's invitation by flooding her with information. "But we've always gotten through it because we're a family. Sometimes my brothers can be a pain, but we all know that we're there for each other. If Leo really did forget me … how can our family live on? It won't be the same." He didn't say any more.

Lila allowed the silence to continue for a minute so that Don could compose himself again. "Donatello," she said softly. She was rewarded by Don lifting his head to look at her, the wet patches below his eyes disguised by how dark the room was. "He's alive."

"Not all of him," Don countered with a weak voice.

"Do not yet fret, because he's simply lost. You can be there to guide him back." Lila wished that she would have the same chance with her own family problems that she had left behind.

Don shifted to move back into a crunched position, but Lila grabbed his arms before he could. When she didn't let go, Don figured that it would be best to answer her. "It's painful to see him and know everything we went through throughout our whole lives, as turtle-tots, children, recently, but know that he doesn't remember them. I don't know the extent of his memory, and I'm afraid to learn it."

"Give him a chance," Lila persisted, continuing to hold on to his arms.

The turtle took in another breath before giving a light shake of his head. "I don't know if I can. I don't even have to be around him and see that he isn't faking."

"You just now discovered that he suffers from amnesia. Of course it smarts," Lila argued, slowly releasing her paws from around his forearms.

As soon as Lila retracted her comforting, yet firm touch, Don pulled his feet into his bed and rolled onto his side, his shell facing her to end the conversation. Lila stared at the patterns across his back for a couple minutes before quietly padding back to her makeshift bed and curling up to comfort herself from both the stress of the current situation as well as her past sins. She hadn't told any of her hosts about what she had done to protect herself, but now that they were experiencing problems of their own, Lila was doing it out of respect.

Lila was the first to awaken the following morning. She lifted her head up from the pillow that Don had lent her, watching him sleep for a few minutes. He was a quiet sleeper, unlike one of the other turtles she had heard through the doors. And he was in the same position that he had fallen asleep in, with his back turned right at her.

Standing up on her two hind legs, Lila crossed the room to exit, being as quiet as she possibly could. His door was silent on oiled hinges as she swung it open, and the click of the door as she closed it firmly in the jamb was quiet as well. As soon as she was out of his room, she quickly looked around to make sure that no one else was around. When she found that the lair was empty, she padded up to the edge of the ledge that consisted of the second floor to jump nimbly to the stone floor of the ground. Her cat-like limbs absorbed any shock so that she could quickly stand up and sit around.

"Good morning, Lila," a voice whispered from behind the cat.

She turned around calmly with a small smile on her lips. "Yes, good morning," she replied, her eyes focusing on the body behind the voice. "Did you sleep well?"

Splinter walked across the floor so that he could kneel down beside Lila. He didn't answer right away, but peered at her with twinkling eyes. "You needn't worry about me."

The fur around her eyes wrinkled, her eyes narrowing slightly. "I am not someone that you need to keep at arm's length to protect. With your sons, I can see why you do not tell them everything: so that they can fight their best and keep their shoulders strong. I am not a warrior, nor am I innocent. Something is clearly eating at you, and I believe that I know what it is. Allow me to listen so that you can feel better."

While Splinter didn't stare at her like many other people would have, Lila thought that if he didn't have the manners that he did, he would have. Instead, he stared on ahead without a word for a long time, but Lila allowed him his silence. "You make a point." Lila flicked an ear at him to acknowledge this. "However, the information that I keep inside of me is a family matter, and you do not need to be caught up in such a thing." He lifted himself to his feet, turning his eyes to her again. "Would you like some tea?"

Lila blinked, following his lead in getting up. "Tea?" she inquired, obviously confused. "What is that?"

"Oh," Splinter said under his breath with a shake of his head. "Come, and I will show you. It's very relaxing …" His soft voice trailed off as he made his way to the kitchen. A curious Lila followed soon after, already getting the vibe that Splinter more than enjoyed tea.

Leonardo watched from his doorway, his brows pulled together in a pained expression. Even after a fitful night's sleep, he still couldn't recall who the rat really was. He hadn't seen the cat around when he had woken up, but he didn't recognize who she was, either. The pair of them didn't look anything like him and the other three turtles, but by the way the rat had greeted him when he woke up, he felt like he should know him. Not only that, but very well. So how did the cat fit into all of this? He'd like to do some questioning, but he was afraid that he'd strike more nerves than he meant to.


	8. It's All in the Blood

Eventually the four turtles, Lila, and Splinter were all packed in the small kitchen for breakfast. Lila had discovered that she wasn't a big fan of tea, but since the rat was not able to read her face as well as any of his sons, she could get away with a little white lie. She sat in a corner on a bar stool, the mug held firmly in her fingers, as she quietly sipped the liquid away, watching the family's routine.

Donatello instantly went to the coffee machine to make himself a cup, munching on a piece of toast while he waited. Even though Leonardo was the first turtle to awaken, he didn't walk into the kitchen until everyone else had filed inside. Raph had already grabbed a bowl and cereal, but Mikey was still scrounging around for something to eat, muttering to himself.

"Hey Leo," Don spoke up. Leo's, Mikey's and Lila's eyes all shot to the quiet turtle's face to hear what he had to say. "I need you in my lab after breakfast before we start anything. Just in case," he added after a couple seconds of thought.

Leo shrugged, his brain automatically wondering if Donatello's request was a typical one. When Mikey didn't pay Don any more attention once he was done talking, going back to his activities with a shrug, he decided that he shouldn't make a scene out of it, but accept. "Alright," he said to his forgotten brother with a small smile.

Donatello instantly turned around to grab the coffee pitcher to pour some of the drink inside his own mug. "Whenever you're ready." With those words hanging in the air, he snatched his ceramic cup and walked out of the room, making a beeline for said lab. He did his best to keep his eyesight away from Leo as he passed him, turning his head blatantly away from his elder brother.

The turtle let out a sigh when Donatello continued to ignore him. "He's not … not normally like that, is he?" he asked aloud, turning his gaze to the nearest turtle.

Raph looked up from his bowl, one brow raised. "Ya mean ignorin' ya?" he clarified.

"Yeah. It's like he's trying his best to avoid me, but aren't we supposed to be brothers?" Leo was working hard to make things as normal as he possibly could, despite the fact that he had memory holes, but it seemed that no matter how he tried, his family—whether he remembered them or not—wasn't happy.

"Yeah, he is," Raph confirmed, waving his spoon in the air at Leo. "But he's not the most rock steady of us, either."

"Watch your step, Leonardo," Splinter suggested. Leo looked down at the ground he was standing on, thinking the rat was talking literally, but turned his face up sheepishly when he caught the second meaning behind the words. "Donatello is hurt and confused because of your amnesia."

Leo wasn't sure about how to react to the statement. If Don was taking the situation badly, Leo hoped that he could calm the turtle down, but he had to be careful about what he did and said. Yet Donatello wasn't the only person in the room he had forgotten. The mutant that had suggested to be careful probably was just as hurt as his brother. He appeared to know each of the turtles fairly well.

"Uh, right. I'll keep that in mind," Leo assured the room, grabbing an apple from the fridge. With a quick wave he disappeared from the kitchen, walking across the main lair to get to Don's lab. Bringing up a fist, he tapped his knuckles against the door frame. "Donny?"

"Come in," Don replied, his voice muffled from the distance.

Peeking his head inside, Leo took in his surroundings, carefully stepping inside so as not to knock any of the things around. Many tables were stationed around the perimeter of the room, and all of them were laden with various gadgets, pieces of equipment, and tools. Donatello was sitting on a rolling chair in front of a computer, typing furiously at the keyboard. Once he was aware that Leo was in the room, his hand reached for the mouse, clicked once, and the whole screen went blank. Jumping to his feet, he fetched a kit.

"I'm going to run a few tests to figure out the cause behind your … condition," Don informed Leo, still avoiding looking at him. "I'll draw some of your blood so that I can screen it for toxins, in case it's poison, but also to double-check that you're diet is balanced. I'm also going to have you test your motor and vital functions for neurological damage, and—"

"Donny," Leo cut in, instantly stopping the genius from further chatter. "I won't know what you're talking about until you do it. Is talking out loud necessary for yourself, or is it supposed to be for my benefit?"

Don looked up, though still managed to avoid Leo's eyes. "Sorry. It's just—" He shook his head, laying his tools out on a table next to Leo to get organized. "Never mind." He turned his back on Leo to avoid any more questions, but covered it up with fetching his computer chair and rolling it across to Leonardo. "Sit," he ordered.

Leonardo looked at Don, hoping to catch his eyes, but the quiet turtle wouldn't give him the chance. Letting out a little sigh, Leo took the back of the chair in his hand to roll it around, allowing him to do as Don told him. Once he was comfortable, Donatello took Leo's right arm in his hand, removing the elbow pad from around the joint. Setting the forearm on the arm of the chair, palm facing upwards, he grabbed a bottle of alcohol from the table, as well as a cotton swab, to kill the germs in the area he wished to draw blood from. Still not looking up at Leo's face, he put the dirty swab aside so that he could later throw it in the trash. Picking up a thin strip of rubber, he tied that around Leo's upper arm, and then readied the needle at the table. Turning to his brother again, he said, "You'll feel a little poke."

"Okay," Leonardo needlessly replied. He tensed up his opposite arm in anticipating of something more uncomfortable than the warned poke, but was surprised when he found the needle in his arm without even feeling it. "You're good," he commented. He instantly regretted saying such a thing when a frown formed on Don's lips and he tilted his face ever so slightly away from Leo's direct line of sight.

While supplies were limited for the turtles, Don always found a way around such a thing, and always had everything the family would need medically. Most of the things he had laying around his lab weren't easily found, especially not by an unlicensed non-citizen, but he had them anyway.

Don filled up a few plastic tubes with blood, drawn through the needle. After the first one he released the tourniquet from around Leo's arm, setting it aside. His eyes never left his busy hands as he kept his words to himself.

"How much blood will you need?" Leo inquired after the fifth vial. Donatello didn't break his silence, but gestured toward the small pile he had on the table. Leo eyed them with a frown, quickly looking away so he didn't have to think about it. Once all of the tubes were filled with Leonardo's blood, he pressed a new cotton swab on the opening and slipped the needle out. Applying gentle pressure, he wound some gauze around the swab, and then set to cleaning up the table. Leonardo made to leave the room with his uneaten apple in hand, thinking that Donatello was no longer paying him attention, but was caught by the arm before making more than one step.

"I told you I needed to test your functions," Donatello chided. Still gripping Leo's arm, he pushed him in the desk chair, quickly grabbing on to an arm so that it didn't roll out from underneath him.

Don turned around and grabbed a thermometer from the table beside him. "Open," he instructed. Leo blinked at him for a moment before following his order so that Don could put the thermometer under his tongue. The purple-clad turtle twisted around to look at a clock, taking the tool back after a while, and then scribbled something down on a clip board. Setting the thermometer aside, he grabbed Leo's wrist to take his pulse, still staring at the clock for a time frame. After fifteen seconds, he retracted his hand and scribbled another thing on the clipboard. Grabbing yet another tool from the table, Donatello wrapped a fabric cuff around Leonardo's upper arm so that he could take the turtle's blood pressure. After recording those numbers on the sheet of paper, he set that instrument aside.

Leonardo waited patiently for a few second before saying, "Is that all?"

Don let out a sigh, looking around his lab as a last minute check. When he didn't find anything new to pull out, he nodded. "For now, yes," he replied, stepping back so that Leo could get out of the chair and leave. He was stationary until he could hear the slight whine of the door hinges as Leo closed the door behind him. As soon as Donatello knew that he was alone, he grabbed his clipboard to set it next to the computer keyboard, as well as the dirtied supplies he had casually set aside while Leo was still around. With those out of the way, all he had to do was put his medical kit back in order and set it in its normal place.

Pulling his chair across the room, he sat down in it, turning the computer monitor back on. Opening a new window, he hovered his fingers over the keyboard, typing up the notes he took on the piece of paper, saving the document as he went along. Just as he finished, a knock sounded at his door.

Looking up in the direction of the door, Don paused, resting his hands on his thighs. "Yes?" he called out, wondering who would be knocking at his door.

Lila stuck her head inside, but didn't follow with the rest of her body. "Splinter requests that you join him and the others inside the dojo," she informed him, her face unreadable.

Donatello's brows pulled together. "Doesn't he know I'm trying to find a cure for Leo's condition?" he asked, fully knowing that Lila wouldn't know the answer to the question. "I know training's important, but—"

"I'm sure he's aware of the reasons behind your self-quarantine," Lila cut in, pushing the door open a little wider. "And I'm sure he would like to know why his son is not the same as he once was. I, however, am not him, and do not know the way he thinks. It is best to remove yourself from your lab and join your family inside the dojo."

She was a tricky one, using not only logic, but smart words against Donatello. Staring at her for a few seconds, he grudgingly switched off the monitor again. Getting up from his chair, he grabbed his bo staff, which he had propped up against the wall near the door, and followed Lila to the dojo, avoiding looking at Leonardo once inside.

"Thank-you for joining us, Donatello," Splinter greeted pleasantly. "Have you made any progress?"

Don shook his head a little bitterly. "No, sensei. I haven't had time to study the blood samples."

"You have my confidence. Now if you would kneel, I'd like to begin."

Donatello strode up beside Raphael, kneeling beside him and in front of his master. Lila took a couple steps back so that she was against the wall, but comfortably so.

"Outside influences are changing our family," Splinter began, obviously referring to Leonardo's amnesiac condition, "but we cannot allow that to slow us. I want to confirm that the four of you can still work together in a team before I allow any of you topside for any reason."

Michelangelo looked sideways at Leonardo, not trying to be discreet about it. "Um, Master Splinter? Is Leo still leader?"

Raph cast a quick glance at Don, and then looked expectantly at Splinter for a response. "Yes, Michelangelo. He alone has put in the training to properly lead a team, and he retains that knowledge."

"Okay," Mikey said easily, tearing his gaze away from his brother. "So what are we gonna do?"

"The four of you will keep me from laying a finger on Lila." Splinter allowed a small smile at this, looking over his sons to assess their reactions. Not surprisingly, Donatello had the most to say.

"What?" he cried, moving to rise to his feet, but ultimately he decided to stay in the kneeling position. "Master Splinter, you can't just bring her into a training session! She doesn't know anything."

"Exactly, my son," Splinter said. "She simulates a helpless victim that the four of you must protect. This training exercise will be held in the main chamber of our lair with candlelight as your only light to see by. If I get by you to get to Lila because of poor teamwork, it will mean extra training sessions with the same topic."

Donatello wasn't appeased. Frowning, he argued, "Does Lila even get a say in this? Or—"

"Of course, Donatello," Splinter soothed. "We chatted about it over our tea. She consents to be under your protection in the said circumstances."

Raphael was the next to speak up. "How do we know when we've won, Master Splinter?"

A sneaky smile was flashed at Raph. "The exercise is over when I feel your teamwork is not hindered in the slightest."

"Great," Raph muttered under his breath.

"Shall we begin?" Splinter looked at each of his sons in turn, not forgetting to look over their heads at Lila. He received various mumbles of affirmation by everyone present in the room. "Good. I suggest you make your stand." With a clap of his hands, along with a snicker from Mikey, the dojo went dark. The only source of light was from the candles he had placed on the opposing side of the door, strategically placed in the main area of the lair.

"Gotta love that clapper," Mikey commented, his voice indicating that he was already on his feet. "I mean—whoa!" The next sound coming from him was the sound of his shell smacking against the side of the dojo. "Watch out! Sensei's on the move!"

"Figure that out all by yourself?" Raph taunted, a battle growl escaping from his beak. "I got him!"

"Right. Donny! Take Lila out of here. I'll cover your back." Rasping metal of Leo's katanas reached the ears of everyone present. Sounds of a scuffle, accented with Raph's gravelly voice, meant that he still had Splinter under control, until he, too, was kicked aside.

"'Scuse me, coming through," Mikey called, pushing past Leo, who stood in the doorway. "Going to help Don!"

Katanas held at the ready, Leo continued to block the doorway, barring Raph inside. After a minute, he relaxed his stance slightly, informing everyone in a somewhat calm voice: "Uh … guys? I lost him."

"Way t' go, O Fearless," Raph growled, pushing a finger into Leo's plastron. "Now move aside so I can get in on the action." Leonardo stood firm until he heard Don's battle cry from the main part of the lair. Stepping to the side, he strained his eyes to look around, conscious of Raph slipping past him to disappear into the shadows, hopefully picking up some strategic place to protect the cat.

"Mikey … watch … Lila," Don grunted between blows, barely able to get his staff around to ward Splinter off. Lila was hunched on all fours behind him, slowly retreating to the entertainment area, where she backed into Raph's legs.

"Nah, I got her," the turtle assured, picking the cat up without warning. She let out a yowl, keeping her claws retracted so that she didn't injure her protector. As soon as Raphael was positive that she was secure in his arms, he gave a wide birth to Donatello and Michelangelo—whom were both fighting Splinter—and ran around so that he could get to the second level. Leonardo, having found Raphael after Lila's surprised cry, positioned himself so that if Splinter did get past Don and Mikey, he would have to go through him to get to Raph and Lila.

Michelangelo eventually assumed the offense against his sensei, Donatello providing a close back-up in case things went downhill. His nunchucks whirling, he pulled off his best maneuvers to try and get past Splinter, but the rat was not only too fast, but knew most of Mikey's moves. After a solid minute of the nunchucks cracking against nothing but the wood of Splinter's staff, Donatello tried to get a swing around with his bo staff to catch Splinter off guard. Before the momentum of Don's strike got anywhere, Splinter had already launched himself in the air and over his son's heads. The second his feet touched the ground, he spun around and pushed Michelangelo into an unbalanced position, finishing him off by landing a deliberate kick. Ducking another swing from Donatello's staff, he turned on his hand with his foot extended outwards to knock Don to the ground.

Seeing that Don and Mikey were down, Leo assumed a much more defensive pose, his swords crossed in front of his face. Splinter began running toward him, coming in close. Leonardo swung a katana around, holding back slightly so that he did not injure the rat, but his hesitation allowed Splinter to slip right under his legs and continue up the staircase to the second level. Whirling around, Leo shouted, "Raph! We're down, and he's coming up the stairs!" Looking around, his eyes caught on the flickering silhouettes of his brothers. "You two alright?"

Mikey let out a groan. "No. It's easy to underestimate him."

Donatello pushed himself into a sitting position. "That's not my problem." A grunt escaping from him, he launched himself into the air to land deftly on his feet, his bo staff in hand. "Come on. We have to help Raph." Taking off, he planned another route to get behind Raphael and to get straight to Lila.

Catching Splinter's stick between the blades of his sai, Raphael let out a growl, twisting the weapon to wrench the wooden weapon out of his master's hand. When that didn't work, he rammed his other sai into the stick for more leverage, a snarl showing on his face to mark the amount of strain he was administering. Splinter wordlessly tried to jerk his walking stick out of Raphael's grasp, but his struggles were in vain when Raphael out-muscled him, flinging the stick aside. He trumped a triumphant laugh, barely able to get his forearm up in time to block Splinter's punch. Over the rat's head, he saw Leo sprinting up the stairs to aide him, but was completely unaware of Donatello pulling himself onto the ledge behind him.

"Lila," Don whispered, grabbing her attention. "This way!" She glanced over at Don for a second, throwing her eyes back at Raph's failing battle with his father, before leaping into Don's arms. Grabbing onto her pelt to keep her safe, Don jumped blindly to the first floor, crouching low and letting go of Lila to avoid the shock. "Go to Mikey," he instructed quietly, pointing to where the orange-clad turtle was standing. He witnessed her quick nod before he moved to study the battle. It wasn't long before he gasped, Raphael crashing into him.

"Thanks fer the landin'," Raph grumbled, his voice slurring more than usual.

A clap resounded around the lair, all of the lights switching on with a merciless ferocity. Mikey shielded his eyes, but Don and Raph were too tangled up to provide such protection. Leonardo had his swords in his hands, poised to attack Splinter, but relieved himself from the position when he saw the rat was in a calm stance.

"Very good, my sons," Splinter congratulated. "You all did well."

"Thanks Master Splinter," Raph said sarcastically. "Ya say that _after_ throwin' me across the room a couple times."

"Would you get off me now?" was all Don had to say.

Splinter turned to Leonardo, his face a mask. "You performed admirably."

"Uh, thanks." Leo's response revealed his uncertainty around his once cherished master. Now he couldn't remember him, but he was almost conscious of the fact that he wasn't treating him much differently than he would have before he lost his memory. Leo wished that he could return the favor.

Walking calmly down the ledge that made up the hallway, Splinter announced, "The training exercise is over."

"That's it?" Mikey questioned, excitement filling his voice. "Awesome!" Lila turned his big eyes up to him, blinking once, but otherwise didn't comment.


	9. Lab Work

As soon as Raphael removed himself from the ground, he turned around to help Don to his feet. "Splinter's got some aim, huh?" he asked jokingly, effortlessly hoisting Donatello once the turtle had taken his hand.

Don grunted, dusting himself off as soon as he was balanced. "Yeah. You're welcome for the soft landing, by the way."

A grin spread across Raph's face at the comment. "Because landin' on your shell is better'n crashin' inta the floor. Better watch out next time, Donny."

Shaking his head, Donatello began walking off in the direction of his lab. "I wonder how much it really pains you to apologize," he marveled out loud, looking over his shoulder as he stood in the doorway.

"What?" Raph asked innocently, shrugging. "Not like I can change the direction I'm thrown in, Brainiac. Ain't that basic physics or whatevah?"

Don ignored Raph completely and moved to close the door behind him, but Lila had slipped in behind him. "Lila?" he exclaimed softly, staring down at her furry form.

"I thought that you would enjoy some friendly company," Lila explained, looking around the lab. "Are you normally so reserved?"

The door clicked shut behind Don, locking him and the cat inside the lab. "I need to find a cure to Leo's condition," Don informed her, padding across the room to get to his computer. Plopping down into the chair, he turned the monitor on once more, his eyes scanning over the notes he had typed up. "And I told you earlier, I can't be around him. It's …"

"Painful," Lila finished, snatching a cushion from some unknown corner. Throwing it beside Donatello's desk, she sat down and leaned against one of the wooden legs. "You realize that by avoiding him, you're causing him pain as well?"

Don tore his eyes away from the screen and blinked down at her. "What? Really?" Lila gestured to the contents of the room. "For someone so obviously smart, you aren't a genius when it comes to others, are you?" The question was rhetorical, and Don treated it so. "Leonardo doesn't wish to forget who you are."

"I know that," Don snapped, causing Lila to recoil slightly. "I mean, that's why I'm working on finding a cure."

"How can you be so sure that there _is_ a cure?" Lila challenged, not as intimidated by her new friend as she made it appear. "Everything about this case is shrouded in the unknown, so how can you be so sure about anything?"

The questions struck Donatello deep, and he struggled not to show it. "There … there has to be," he reasoned weakly. "This can't be permanent. If there's a will, there's a way, right? So I'm going to find out what happened to Leo, no matter what."

Lila sighed. "Your determination is admirable," she commended, "as are your reasons. However, you are going at this the wrong way."

Donatello rose to his feet, pushing the chair backwards to crash into a table laden with various gadgets and tools. "This way has worked for years! Now if you'll excuse me, I have tests to run." Turning his back on her, he walked across the room so that he was standing in front of the table he used when examining Leo. Gathering the vials of blood he collected, he stored them in a more safe area with cooling so that the blood wouldn't expire as quickly. Keeping one sample in his hand, he took a syringe and extracted a small amount, expelling it onto a glass slide. Applying a slip cover over the drop of blood, he turned to his microscope.

Lila watched Donatello for a long period of time, not comprehending any of the things that he was doing. He used the whole space of his lab, often jumping from one station to the next, muttering words under his breath. Every few minutes he stopped at his computer, typing away the mental notes he had made for future reference, but he didn't stay there for long.

An hour passed, Donatello mercilessly studying the samples he had collected, as well as the data he had typed out, before he left the room for a cup of coffee. Lila stayed sitting where she was, making herself comfortable on the cushion she had taken. Most of the time she spent in the lair was alone, but she had had some nice conversations with Splinter, as well as a few short ones with Michelangelo. While she enjoyed Mikey's company to a degree, she found him a little too full of energy for her tastes, as well as slightly childish. She made sure to give a wide berth to Raphael so as not to get her ears chewed out again, as well as to avoid a confrontation he would most likely win. Never before in her life had she met someone so pessimistic. Leonardo was also pleasant company, but whenever he got to the topic of his family, she quietly excused herself; he reminded her too much of the family she had left behind, making her feel even worse for what she did. Donatello had been a friendly soul to talk to the first couple of nights, but now that he had a goal in mind, he was distancing himself from even her. She thought that maybe she could get a conversation out of him that night, but as the time wore on, she was beginning to rethink it.

Late at night or early in the morning, depending on how one looked at the time, Lila silently excused herself from the room, slipping out through the door to climb the stairs to Donatello's room. She curled up on the pillow he had let her borrow, but forced herself to stay awake, hoping that he would soon follow. Her hopes were crushed after another long period of time, in which she eventually fell asleep.

"No, this can't be," Donatello muttered, peering over the results from the test. "Why can't I …? This doesn't make sense." He picked another sheet of paper up from beside the computer, flicking it into a position he could read it. Scanning over the nearly illegible notes scrawled across the paper, he was startled into dropping it when another knock sounded at his door. "Who's there?" he called out, bending over to gather the papers.

Raphael opened the door and walked through. "Donny—"

Donatello sighed and shook his head before Raph could talk any further. "Raph, whatever it is, I'm sure it can wait. I'm trying to figure out a cure for Leo."

Letting out a sigh, Raphael eased the door shut behind him, leaning against it for support. "Findin' anythin'?"

Don didn't answer right away as he straightened out the papers, which appeared to be sporadically spread across the surfaces of a couple tables. "Not anything remotely useful."

"What's that supposed t' mean?" Raphael understood the language, but not the meaning behind it. Was Donatello suggesting that he was learning things, but he couldn't do anything about it?

Donatello sunk into his desk chair, leaning heavily against the back. "_Meaning_ that I know it's a poison running through Leonardo's blood, but I've never seen anything like it before. I've tried mixing together a few ingredients to further pinpoint its origins, but the tests have resulted in nothing; it still roams freely through the blood."

Raphael was quiet for a moment, sorting through the information. "Couldn't you take it to LH and ask him?"

"Excuse me?" Donatello asked with an edge to his voice. "You think that he would better be able to wrap his mind around the concept of the poison better than me?"

Holding up his hands as if to ward off an attack, Raphael quickly amended his words. "Chill it, Donny. You're tired an' … ah, never mind." Donatello frowned at his shell as he turned around and opened the door to mind his own business again. "See ya in the mornin'," he called, leaving Don to himself.

"Sure," Don replied, his mind already switched back to the research. Looking over the notes again, he turned to his coffee to keep him awake for the night so that he could expedite the process and reduce the blurring of his tired eyes.

Donatello had stayed up all night, snatching only a few minutes of sleep when coffee no longer benefited him. He heard movement and voices from the other side of his door, indicating that his brothers, Splinter and Lila were awake, but he paid them no attention. All of his focus was reserved for his latest project. Picking up another vial of Leo's blood, he carried it across the lab to another machine, nearly falling asleep on his feet. Before he could make it to the correct table, the sample had slipped from his fingers, crashing to the floor. The glass exploded on the stone floor, the blood seeping between the shards. Surprised into wakefulness, Donatello jumped at the sound of the shattering, but instead of avoiding the newly created mess, he stepped right in it. Covering a cry of pain, he backed up to a wall, sliding down it to get a look at the bottom of his foot. Leo's blood was intermixing with his own, seeping from wounds created by the class. Squinting at the glass, Donatello eventually picked it all out of his foot, but he wasn't able to stop the bleeding. Using a nearby table to pull himself to his feet, he hobbled through a small isle, carefully trying to avoid the mess, so that he could reach his medical kit. Opening it, he grabbed the disinfectant and some gauze, and set to cleaning up his foot. He hissed with pain when the alcohol reached the cut, but clamped his jaws together, wrapping the gauze tightly around his foot and securing it with medical tape. As soon as he was sure that he would be alright, he grabbed his coffee mug and exited the lab.

"'Morning, Donny!" Mikey greeted cheerfully. He held up a skillet from the stove, a spatula in his other hand. "I made scrambled eggs!"

Mumbling something to his younger brother, Donatello pushed past him to get to the coffee machine. Before he could pick up the pitcher to pour the last bit of coffee into his mug, he felt a sharp slap on his wrist, causing him to drop the mug just as he had the vial of blood. The mug bounced off the counter, and threatened to spin off of the counter, but Donatello caught it before it could fall to the floor. Turning around, he glared at his attacker. "Master Splinter?"

"You can do without coffee this morning, Donatello," Splinter replied, leaning lightly against his walking stick.

Letting out a yawn, Donatello's sour look was spoiled. "But I was up all night," he complained.

"Coffee is not an alternative to sleep." To stop the argument then and there, Splinter turned around to face Mikey.

Sensing his master's intentions, Mikey scooped up some of the eggs from the skillet and handed them over to Splinter. "Here ya go, Master," he said happily.

"Thank-you, my son," was the rat's reply as he took a seat at the table.

Leonardo took a plate offered by Mikey as well, and moved around the table to get his own seat. Before he sat down, he set the plate on the wooden surface and looked down at Don's foot. "Donny, what happened?" he inquired.

Donatello visibly flinched. "It's nothing, Leo," he assured him, hoping that it was true. He'd been injured all of the time, so why would this be different? Leo was his brother; his blood couldn't be too dangerous to his health. "Eat." Inching along the counter, Don yawned again before asking Michelangelo for a helping of his eggs.

"Here, Don," Mikey said, handing off another plate. He served up two more, one for Raph, who wasn't yet in the room, and one for himself. Taking up a seat next to Leo, Mikey began ravenously eating away at the eggs. "So what are we doing t'day?" Mikey asked, talking through a mouthful.


	10. Breakfast in Bed

Donatello began following Michelangelo around the table so that he could sit down and eat his scrambled eggs his younger brother had so graciously cooked up. He reached out and set the plate down on the wooden surface, but as he was turning around to grab a fork, he experienced a sudden bout of dizziness. Standing still for a moment, trying to regain his mind back, the edge of his vision darkened until he saw no more.

"Donny!" Mikey shouted, jumping up from his chair to try and catch his brother. He was too slow in his reaction, and Donatello hit the floor hard enough to convince everyone present that he wasn't faking it. Crouching down at his side, he looked up to where Leo was sitting, open-mouthed, and to where Splinter was running around the table to look over his son. "He's out," Michelangelo commented with a shrug. He didn't know what had caused such a thing, but he knew that Donatello was unconscious.

"He's worked himself too hard," Splinter reasoned, quickly checking to make sure that Donatello wasn't in any immediate danger.

"Should we carry him to his room so that he can sleep?" Leonardo suggested. He hadn't yet moved from his chair, but he knew that he should be concerned. "Taking a nap in the middle of the kitchen isn't—"

"What's goin' on in here?" Raph demanded, snatching up a plate of Mikey's eggs, unaware of Don's unconscious form on the ground. "Havin' a tea party down there?" Placing his plate on the table, he craned his neck to get a look at what Splinter and Michelangelo were crouched around. "Don?"

"Yes, my sons," Splinter said, ignoring Raphael and answering Leo's question. He let out a sigh, as if disappointed in Donatello. "We can do nothing about the past, so we shall adapt to the present. Raphael, help Michelangelo bring Donatello to his room."

Raphael walked slowly around the table, looking down at his younger brother. "Yes, Master." Kneeling down beside Don, he lifted an arm around his shoulders. Looking over to make sure Mikey was doing the same thing, he lifted Don with Mikey's help, supporting the unconscious turtle as best as he could. "Let's go."

The two teenagers maneuvered their way out of the kitchen, conscious of Donatello so as not to injure him further. They took a while to figure out how to get him up the stairs, but eventually worked it out and got him in his room. When they set him gently on top of his covers, Lila lifted her head from Don's pillow.

"What's wrong?" she demanded, padding over to sniff at her friend. She looked up at Raph and Mikey's face, aware that Raph could strike out at her, but masking her fear of him.

Raph grunted. "Genius stayed up all night an' konked out," he replied gruffly. "Had t' carry him up here so he can have his beauty sleep."

Lila frowned, as if she didn't think his explanation was good enough. "I assume that you believe you have better things to do?" She crouched down next to Donatello's bed so that the height different between her and the two turtles was even greater, but since Raphael hadn't yet struck out, she believed that she was safe.

"I have a breakfast to eat …" Mikey replied, rubbing the back of his neck and looking off in the direction of the door.

"Yeah," Raph grunted, crossing his arms. "Me, too."

"Then leave," Lila told them. She turned her gaze to her friend asleep on the bed. "I will watch over him and assure that he is fine."

"Dude, he just fell asleep," Michelangelo reminded her, taking a couple surreptitious steps away. "He's fine."

Lila glared at him for thinking such a thing. "When someone passes out, it is never a good thing."

Raphael waved at her, as if swatting her arguments aside. Turning, he pushed past Mikey and headed toward the door. "Whatever. I'm eatin'."

"Bye!" Mikey called, skipping after his brother. No one bothered to close the door behind themselves, so Lila was able to hear the conversation from Donatello's room, whether they knew it or not.

Raphael pulled out a chair from the kitchen table, a frown playing on his lips. "Ya sure that he's just exhausted, Master Splinter?" he inquired, shoving piles of egg around the plate. He ate a bite from his fork, slowly extracting the utensil while looking at the rat.

"Other possibilities could exist, but exhaustion is the most likely," Splinter assured him. He picked up his emptied plate from the table, grabbing Leonardo's on his way over to the sink. Setting them gently into the sink, he turned around to face his remaining sons. "How is our guest today?" The question was directed towards Raph and Mikey, but Michelangelo was too busy finishing up his eggs to notice that he was being talked to.

Raph gave a small shrug, eating another forkful of cooling eggs. "Lila?"

"She is not part of our family."

Setting the fork down, Raphael leaned back into his chair. "Eh, she went right up to Donny, tellin' us that it wasn't good Don passed out."

Mikey looked up at that time, a few chunks of cooked egg stuck to his chin. Nodding, he swallowed his mouthful and added, "Yeah."

Leonardo stood up from his chair, pushing it gently back into its home. "Isn't she hungry?" he inquired. "I don't think she's eaten anything sustaining today or yesterday."

Splinter stroked the fur on his chin, a thoughtful look on his face. "I will send her down here to eat while I watch over Donatello." He stared sternly at each of the turtles, Leonardo included. "You will tend to her if she is hungry." That being said, he turned around and moved toward the stairs.

Pushing his empty plate away from him and towards the middle of the table, Michelangelo leaned against his hand, still sitting down. "And I thought we'd do something fun today," he commented, his voice bordering on a whine.

Leonardo tossed him a look. "And I thought you could make _any_ situation fun."

"Or annoyin'," Raphael added, as if he didn't want to be left out from the conversation.

"Yeah, 'cause it's _so fun_ when one of my brothers can't remember sensei or Donny," Mikey shot back, a pout on his face. "Dude, it's not the same around here."

Leo threw his hands up in the air, frustration beginning to show through the mask he had erected. "Mikey, it's not exactly fun when I know that I should know and love Splinter and Donny. And every time I try to get close to Donny, he's pushed me away like he doesn't want to get to know me."

Raph snorted softly. Michelangelo picked his head up from his hand and sighed. "Why do you think you forgot Donny and Splinter, but not me and Raph?"

Silence filled the kitchen for a long moment. "I don't know, Mike," Leo eventually replied.

"Ya think you'd rather forget me," Raph mused without much humor. "At least ya got along with Don."

"I did?" Leo asked, his voice betraying the amount of surprise he felt at such a comment. "It sure doesn't look that way now."

"He's removed himself from everyone," a female voice cut in, causing Mikey to jump. "His motives are sincere, but he's expressing his concern in peculiar ways." Her eyes were directly on Leonardo. "He cares for you, but he's also afraid of you because you lost your memory. Thinking about it, it is not so irrational."

Another thick silence hung over the four mutants in the room. "So … uh … you hungry?" Michelangelo asked Lila, getting up from his chair.

A smile twitched at the corner of Lila's mouth. "I'm used to going long periods of time without eating, since food was not always plentiful where I came from, but I am beginning to feel the iron jaws of hunger gnawing at my stomach."

Raphael narrowed his eyes. "What's that?"

Turning her face to his, Lila's ghost of a smile widened into something genuine. "That was a yes."

"Might want t' speak English," Raph grunted, heading for the exit.

"My English is more perfect than yours," Lila taunted, feeling a little childish for saying such words. Once Raphael's shell disappeared behind a couch, she looked back at Mikey and Leo.

Michelangelo moved to the refrigerator, shuffling through some of the items inside. "So what do you like to eat? I think I have some eggs left."

"Eggs?" Lila's clueless expression led Leonardo to believe that she had never heard of such a thing.

"Try and Mike," he suggested.

"Okay …" Mikey shoved another few items aside. "Do you drink milk? Juice? Pop?"

"Milk is for kits," Lila explained, as if it was obvious. "Water is fine for me. I don't find tea that appetizing."

Mikey glanced over his shoulder at Leo, his eyes wide. Straightening up, he extended his look to Lila. "What _do_ you eat?"

Lila shrugged, getting comfortable on the floor. Wrapping her tail neatly around herself, she tucked her hands in front of her, much like a household cat would do. "Whatever is around."

"Dude," Mikey said flatly, "that doesn't help."

"You're a lot like a cat, right?" Leo asked. He didn't feel like his inquiry was too stupid until Lila shot him a look that questioned his intelligence. "I mean, you eat a lot of meat?"

Lila nodded. "Yes."

Michelangelo's face brightened at the new information. Turning back to the fridge, he pulled open a drawer. "We have leftover pizza with pepperoni and sausage toppings."

"Mikey," Leo interjected, grabbing his brother's attention. "Don't think of her as a human, but as a cat. What would cats eat?"

Mikey's mouth made a perfect o at his realization. "Oh," he voiced, a few seconds late. "Chicken?" he offered Lila, holding up a plastic bag. A confused look was his answer. "Alright, this is what we have," he eventually sighed, giving up. Taking more plastic containers out of the drawer, he lined them up on the table and opened them up. "Smell what you like."

Lila uncurled herself, padding over to the table and leaning heavily on the wood, sniffing intently at the boxes. Leo watched with amusement written over his face, while Mikey watched with wonder. After a minute of decision, Lila decided on eating all of the ham slices. Telling the turtles that the small amount was enough, Leo and Mikey closed up the remaining containers and stuck them back into the refrigerator.

The three of them began to walk out of the kitchen together, silent without a topic to talk over, and headed toward Raphael, sitting at the televisions. Before they got far, Lila picked up Splinter's exclamation. Twitching her ear in the direction of Donatello's room, she verbally stopped the turtles from moving onward. "Donatello's awake."

Michelangelo shot off to make it to Don, while Leo advanced more slowly. Raphael, having heard Lila over the volume of the television, twisted around on the couch before making his own way to the room. Smiling to herself at the family bond still there, Lila made her way up the stairs, but stayed on the ledge until Donatello had had time with his family.

Before Mikey could launch across the room to tackle Don into a hug, Splinter held out his walking stick, blocking his way. Leo and Raph crowded in the doorway behind Mikey, twisting to get a peek at the groggy Don.

"My son," Splinter began, grabbing Don's attention. "How are you feeling?"

"Like my head's going to split open," he mumbled, his eyes narrowing into pained slits. "I think it's going away a little, though."

Lowering his stick, Splinter expected that Mikey would approach Don much more slowly with the information hanging in the air, but had turned out to be incorrect. Gathering a lot of speed in a short distance, he leaped on the bed and gave Don a hug, despite the horizontal angle. "Donny!" he shouted gleefully.

Donatello didn't respond. When Mikey eventually pulled away, he stared up at his face, his brows pulled downwards. "Sorry?"

"You Donny, me Mikey," Michelangelo replied, adding a little more of a grunt to his voice. "Are you still asleep or something, dude?" Raphael and Leonardo walked up to beside Don's bed.

"I don't …" Don's eyes suddenly flew open widely. "Oh no!" Glancing fretfully at Leo, his face grew fearful. "I don't remember him…."


	11. Reacquaint and Revenge

"I don't remember him …" Donatello uttered, his eyes wide with fear. By the way Michelangelo had been pestering him, jumping on top of him in a friendly matter as soon as he woke up, the turtle had to have known Donatello.

"No!" Mikey denied childishly, pushing himself off of his brother to stand beside Raphael and Leonardo. "No, Donny! Stop!"

Raphael cast a sidelong glance at his youngest brother. "Mikey, shuddup. You ain't helpin'."

Mikey caught Raph's glance, his brows pulled together, but the only response he gave was a low whine and a little fidget. Leo placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder without even looking at him, since Don had his full attention.

"Don, do you remember what happened?" he inquired, wondering if Don would have the answer behind his own amnesia.

The brainy turtle was quiet for a while, lost in painful thought. The four other occupants of the room respected the silence and reinforced it with their own. All eyes were on the turtle in bed, hoping that he'd have all the answers; he always did before.

"It was poison," Donatello finally informed the room. "I remember it was some poison I've never seen before in your blood, Leo, but …" He trailed off, and then shook his head, signaling that he wasn't going to finish the sentence.

"Poison?" Leo echoed after he was sure Donatello was no longer going to speak. If it was poison that was affecting his brain, how could Donatello have picked it up, unless his was more slow acting than Leonardo's dose. "Then are you poisoned as well?"

Donatello shrugged, pulling himself into a sitting position and wrapping his arms around his legs. His knees were tucked up against his chest, so he rested his chin on the pads. "That's the only logical explanation."

Raphael crossed his arms, skepticism written all across his face. "How?" he demanded simply. Mikey weakly nodded to add that he was curious as well.

A sigh escaped from Don's mouth as he avoided his brothers' eyes. "I dropped a sample of Leo's blood. The glass shattered, and I stepped on it. I guess I picked up the poison through the wound." He twitched his injured foot subconsciously, again feeling the pain of the glass biting into his flesh. "That's all I can think of."

The three standing brothers exchanged glances. Surprise, worry, anger, and fear were etched on each face in varying amounts. "You s'pose the Shredder has anythin' t' do with this?" Raph asked, not bothering to hide the fact that his hands were clenched into fists by his side.

Michelangelo's eyes became wide circles at the mention of Shredder. The four of them had been fighting the Foot when all of this began, so who else could it be? "It's gotta be," he agreed, eyes narrowing with the decision. "Him. It's gotta be him."

"That's all the answer I need," Raph replied with a sadistic smirk. Smacking a fist into his other open palm, he turned around to leave then and there, but Splinter was blocking his way. "Hey, what gives?"

"You will not be leaving without a plan and in broad daylight," Splinter objected.

Leonardo turned around to stand beside Raph, staring down at the rat. His face didn't give away what he was thinking, but his words did that for him. "Then I have a plan," Leo claimed. "I've shown that I can work with my brothers, and I remember Raph, so the only problems there are the ones that existed beforehand. I also remember the Shredder, the Foot, and all of the dangers lying thereabout. He and I will go to the Shredder's tower—now—so that we can get our lives back."

Splinter was taken aback by his typically most loyal pupil's argument. "Leonardo, I—"

"Can I come, too?" Michelangelo begged, peeping around Leo's elbow to look at Splinter. He already thought that the rat was going to pass the operation as a go and allow the two eldest turtles to leave.

"No," Splinter decided quickly and firmly. Mikey's face instantly showed his disappointed feelings, but he would rather he be that than suffer the same fate as Leonardo and Donatello. Turning back to Leo and Raph, he took in a deep breath. "Then you may leave. I do not feel wholly comfortable over …" He slowly stopped his sentence when he realized the two brothers were not listening, as they were already out the door. "Be careful, my sons."

"Why can't I go?" Michelangelo demanded, pulling Splinter out of his mushy fatherly moment.

Splinter turned around to face him making sure that the air around himself was calm. "Because they are already gone," Splinter replied. Making haste, he removed himself from the room before he could be questioned further.

Crossing his arms in a huff, Mikey turned around to face Don. "I never get to have any fun," he complained.

Not quite sure about how the commented held up, Donatello offered his unknown brother a tiny shrug. "Sorry?"

"Oh, right, you don't remember …" Mikey's voice was quiet as he pointed it out. "Man, why couldn't _Raph_ stay behind? At least _Leo_ remembers me."

"Mikey?" Donatello tried, hoping that he hadn't gotten the name wrong. He'd heard it a couple of times now from both him and one of his other brothers. When Mikey toned down the hysterics and looked at him, Don figured that he was right. "I know how it feels to be forgotten. Leo forgot _me,_ if you don't remember."

"Yeah." Michelangelo nodded calmly.

"I know how much it pains you …" Donatello made sure to tread carefully so that he didn't make a stupid mistake that he would later regret. He understood that Mikey knew him, even though the poison had made him forget.

"I know," Mikey sighed, sitting on the edge of Donatello's bed. Don patted him on the back of the shell, telling him that even though he didn't remember, he was there for him. Leo probably had wanted to make the same sort of amendments, but Donatello had never given him the chance. "I guess we get to know each other again, then." He bounced up and down on the bed, his eagerness overcoming the sad news from all around.

Donatello nodded to reassure the younger turtle. "I guess we do."

"So what's your favorite color? Mine's orange." A cheesy grin spread across Mikey's face as he tapped his bandana. "Get it?"

Donatello reached up to touch his own mask, his hands trailing down the tails. Once they were visible in his hands, he looked back up at Mikey with a soft smile on his face. "Yeah, I get it."

"So … uh, you remember the Shredder?" Michelangelo, while he was supposed to be focusing on Donatello, couldn't help but let his mind wander to what his other two brothers were doing. He wanted to be a part of that plan that Leo had spontaneously come up with, and get in on the action. Last time he had been up against hundreds of Foot ninja, the turtles had their hands full, but it was still fun in a way. Instead, Mikey was stuck behind with the boring turtle that didn't even remember him or how to keep him happy. Maybe if he wouldn't mind he'd sneak off to play video games.

Raphael had to hurry to keep up with Leonardo. He had to give the newly improved Leo credit; he knew what he wanted and he wasn't going to stand up for any shit that stopped him. Although he had to remind himself that Leo didn't actually know who Splinter was anymore, he still couldn't see the Splinter junior butt heads like that against their sensei. Yet he did, and Raphael was about to get revenge for his brothers' conditions because of it.

"Ya know, we have all day t' get there," Raphael puffed. He kicked his pace up a notch when Leo didn't turn around to acknowledge that he had spoke, nearly planting his face on the slimy floor of the sewers when he slipped. A hand shot out to the wall, grabbing a pipe before he fell all of the way down. Once he was steadied, he had to sprint to catch up again. "I mean, we can't show ourselves in the day an' all that."

"If we're as good as we think, a little sun won't be a problem," Leonardo said calmly over his shoulder. His pace slowed slightly when he saw Raphael so far behind him, but it wasn't much of a relief.

Raphael narrowed his eyes, picking up his pace again so that he was abreast to Leo. "So what is your plan?"

Leo shrugged, his feet moving silently over the scummy ground. "Don't really have one. You want revenge as much as I want answers, so—"

"Wait, you're tellin' me you lied to Splinter?" Raphael clarified, the surprise unmasked in his voice.

"No," Leo denied firmly, turning his eyes to his brother, "I didn't. I never said that I had an intricate plan; I simply said I had _a plan._ We sneak our way in there, we take out as many Foot ninjas as we can, and we hope to at least discover where the serum is."

Raph snorted, both pleased and a little worried at Leo's so-called plan. He was used to something a little more pretty. "Okay, and when the Shredder catches up with us?"

"We learn his plans. The guy has some ego issues, so I doubt he'd slay us right away, not if he can use us for bait."

"Great," Raph grunted.

"_Hopefully_, if we need it, we can call for backup."

The backup he was referring to was Donatello and Michelangelo. Splinter would have to let them out of the lair if Raph and Leo never came back. "I'm not sure I'm likin' the sound o' my life in Mikey's hands."

"You wouldn't," Leo laughed, "but we all held our own against Splinter yesterday with someone else in mind. It was only against one ninja, but I'm confident in them two."

Skepticism once again took hold in Raph's voice. "Even though you don't remember Don?"

"Yup."

"He ain't one t' throw himself in battle himself, ya know."

Leonardo shrugged. "You can turn back now, Raph." He stopped, reaching for the ladder leading upwards. "I'm going through with this, whether you come or not, but I'd rather you were by my side. I want my memories back, and I want to help Donny out."

Holding up his hands defensively, Raphael stood on the other side of the ladder. "Okay, okay. I'm comin'. Who am I t' back down from a fight?"

Amusement sparkled in Leo's eyes. "That's what I thought." Stepping upwards, he began to climb to the top of the metal ladder, peeking through the holes on the manhole cover. "Ready? We have to be quick."

"Right behind ya, Fearless," Raphael replied, having climbed up the ladder right after Leo. With a curt nod, Leo lifted up the heavy cover and slid it to the side, peeking his head over the road to check that no civilians were around. As soon as he made sure the coast was clear, he darted for a shadowy corner, not far from Saki tower. He waited for Raph to replace the cover and follow him, this part taking a little longer than the climb up the ladder. "What next?" Raph grunted, pressing his shell against the brick wall to further cover himself.

"Just follow me." With that being said, he was on the move again, heading for an entry point at the top of the building. The place hadn't changed much between the various times the turtles had crashed the place, so he had a pretty good idea on where everything was. Besides, he had Raph to catch him in case he was wrong.

"We're gonna be exposin' ourselves," Raph cautioned as soon as they were on the building.

"Good," Leo smiled, a hand reaching for his katana. Once it was in hand, he headed for the nearest door, slicing it open when he discovered it was locked. Raphael followed, covering Leo's back with sais in hand. "We have company," Leo pointed out as Foot ninja filed into the hallway. Raphael turned around to look over his shoulder, a misplaced grin on his face.


	12. Silence the Turtle

Leonardo ran forward with his sword poised for attack. As soon as he collided with the front ranks of the Foot, his unplanned blow was parried, but that didn't stop him. Catching two ninjaken from different warriors with his katana, Leonardo held them there so that he could apply a roundhouse kick to their middles. Knocking them backwards, Leonardo freed up his swords while also creating a little wider of a play space, as the ninja had fallen back into their comrades. Unfortunately the space wasn't free for long, as more Foot ninja pressed in on the terrapin. Leonardo tried his best to dispatch as many of the faceless goons as he possibly could before the inevitable occurred, but as he did so, the body count around his feet multiplied.

"We're like rats trapped in a corner!" Raph pointed out a couple minutes later, his sais viciously eating away at the ranks. "Leo, this ain't gonna work."

"Then move!" Leo shouted back, furiously sweeping out with his katana to get past a ninja's defenses. He fell backwards, bleeding profusely, but was nothing more than any of the other Foot casualties. Catching some more swinging blades with his katana, Leo expertly swept the weapons aside to bully his way through the growing crowd clogging up the hallway. From the sounds of battle behind him, Leo guessed that Raphael was making his way through the throng as well.

A new wave of Foot surged forward, as if backup had sensed that the turtles expected to push their way through the building until they got what they wanted. With the added numbers against him, as well as the limited space in the hallway he and Raph had pushed into, put Leo on the defense. Attacks came from in front and behind, but Leo didn't have his full range of motion with the walls beside him. He felt swords cut into the flesh of his arms, but for the most part, he was able to keep them from biting into his vitals.

Raphael, due to the fact that he was in tow and had smaller weapons, was getting along a little better. He had blood from the various Foot ninja he had taken down smeared across his arms and front as well as a snarl etched on his face. He was a whirlwind of green as he fought his way to his elder brother, swinging his sais around in his explosive fury to move. The blades passed through stomachs, gutting a few of the black clad men. The prongs caught some of the oncoming swords, but when he was too busy dishing out his own punishment to the men, they came down around him. Raphael was able to twist so that the wounds he acquired weren't too deep, but sometimes he wasn't able to help it. As long as he heard the screams of the dying men in his ears, he was fine.

"Raph?" Leo's call cut into Raph's warrior mindset. Blinking once, he parried a blow from the ninja he was fending off, but was still able to comprehend Leo's call.

"Yeah," he grunted, loudly enough to be heard over the ninja around him.

A response was long in waiting as the two turtles fought to their extreme. Instinctively, Raphael began making his slow way towards Leonardo, preferring to mow down the enemies rather than slip past them somehow.

"To me," Leonardo finally shouted, a growl threatening to burst through his voice. Raphael didn't need to hear his brother twice. The turtles really did work more efficiently together, and it sounded like Leo was asking for Raph's help without actually saying the words. If it was a bail-out the fearless leader needed, Raphael would gloatingly come to the rescue.

Once Leonardo was in his sights, Raphael flipped over the head of an unsuspecting ninja, using another one for better liftoff. Landing beside his brother, Raphael intended to swipe out at the Foot he had just launched himself over, but before he could do such a thing, his foot slid out from underneath him. "Holy shit, Leo!" he exclaimed, grabbing on to the mask of a ninja to steady himself. Once he had his complete balance, along with a few more battle wounds, he threw a punch at the man's face, throwing him back into another man. "How can ya stay standin'?" Blood and bodies covered the floor, enough so that the tile was invisible under it. Obviously Leonardo had been a little sword happy before he was slightly overwhelmed.

"Balance, Raphael," he calmly responded, sweeping out with one blade at the masses. His eyes widened significantly when the katana was caught. "Uh …" Before Leonardo could maneuver to get his sword back, it was yanked out of his hand. Bringing his other sword around to ward off any attacks from the muscled opponent, Leo backed his shell into the wall to prevent any attacks from behind. Using Leonardo's katana, the masked ninja jabbed at Leo's plastron with uncanny speed. Twisting his remaining blade around, Leonardo was able to redirect the weapon so that it didn't impale him beyond grazing his arm.

Raphael was unable to get to the beastly enemy Leonardo was up against, as he was becoming nearly surrounded himself. His familiar rage simmering, he sent a roundhouse kick to a couple of the ninja, throwing them to the side, and struck out with his sai. Smacking another foe in the nose with the butt of his weapon, he jumped on the shoulders of the abnormally large brute attacking Leo. Intending to send his blade through his scalp, his plan was cut short when he was grabbed by the arm and thrown to the wall. Emitting a low groan, Raphael moved to get up, but was stopped short by another wave of foot ninja taking advantage of his vulnerable state.

As soon as Leonardo saw that Raphael was out of the game, he switched to the offensive against the grunt, but ultimately met the same fate. Seemingly forgetting about Leonardo's weapon in hand, he sent an impossibly strong punch to Leo's face, knocking the daylights out of him. Once both turtles were incapacitated, the foot ninja remaining set to work on cleaning things up.

"Ugh, what hit me?"

Leonardo stirred at the sound of a voice. He could tell that he was lying down on a cold floor, and through his eyelids he was able to see the bright light. Once he was sure that he wasn't going to get dizzy, he pushed himself up into a sitting position, though it was made difficult by the shackles around his wrists. "The biggest foot ninja I've ever seen," Leonardo replied. He swallowed to get a little moisture in his mouth.

"Heh, oh yeah." Raphael slowly shook his head, wincing when his movements went too far. "He was big." Raphael leaned against the white brick wall, his hands also held together by metal cuffs chained to the wall. "I want a rematch."

Leo sighed, following Raph's idea by scooting beside the wall. "Good luck with that one."

"Whaddya mean?"

"You even know where we are?" Leo didn't mean for his words to come out condescending at all, but the scowl on Raph's face told the leader that that was exactly how he portrayed them. "Look … my plan wasn't that well thought out, but we're a step closer to finding out what's wrong with me and Donny." He didn't add the 'I hope' that echoed through his head. "And once that happens, we can find a cure."

"Leo, how we gonna get outta here?" His tone was stone-edged and accusing, but Leo could do nothing about it now.

"I told you, we call Don and Mikey."

Raphael made a show of patting himself down. "Got some sorta mind communication, Fearless? 'Cause I seem ta have lost my—"

"Looking for this, turtle?" a new voice sneered from the doorway. Both mutants jerked their heads in his direction, a combination of expressions on their faces. Shredder himself was standing at the door, a shell cell in his hand. When neither of the brothers answered him, the Shredder inwardly shrugged and continued. "I'll let you call home, if you tell me one thing: Where is the cat mutant?"

Leo and Raph exchanged glances before looking back at the Shredder. Leonardo was confused as to why the Shredder would want her, especially since he had thrown innumerable amounts of foot after her twice in her short stay in New York. "Why ya wanna know?" Raph demanded smartly, making Leo want to smack him upside the head.

The Shredder didn't reply as he stared down at the two reptilian forms on the ground. "You know where it is," he observed quietly, his eyes brightening. "Maybe this tool can show me." Shredder flaunted the fact that he had the shell cell in his hand.

Throwing himself forward, Raphael tried to attack Saki, but the chain pulled taunt before he could make it. Leonardo, thinking more calmly, put his hands on Raph's shoulders in a reassuring gesture. "What is so important about her?" Leo inquired, hoping that the man wouldn't figure out how to work the device. The turtles' world could come crumbling around their ears if he got past the few security measures Donatello put in the phone.

Saki continued to ignore the questions, instead turning around to whisper to one of his henchmen. Once the man was off, as quick as a crack of a whip, Shredder once again faced the turtles. "The Foot have put too much time, effort, and money into that species to lose it now. We had thought that—"

"What?" Raph cut him off, surprise plain in his voice. "You mean, _you're_ behind her mutation, too?" He shook his head with disbelief, the anger rising up once again. The Shredder was the reason behind his mutation, as well as a few other mutants he had met. How could it be possible that he had a hand in Lila's mutation, both when she came from a different land and because when they had first met, she insisted that she wasn't mutant.

"Silence, turtle," the Shredder spat, cutting a hand uselessly through the air, as if such a movement would scare the hothead. "We had thought that the experimentation in northern Asia with cats was unsuccessful. They were to be the greatest warriors, with human knowledge and cat-like reflexes at their disposal. But they were lost, years ago, and not found since. Until now. I still remember the goals from that time, and now that one has come back to me, I intend to have it back; she is property of the Foot clan."

"Shredder, you're insane," Leonardo hissed, his eyes pulled into slits. "She's a free person with a free will, and there's nothing in your power that can take that away from her."

"You're not in a position to argue," Saki gloated, obviously enjoying his position of power over the two turtles. Despite the fact that he was not honorable in the way he fought, he certainly enjoyed the outcome when he came out on top.

Fiddling with one of the turtles' phones in his hand, Shredder managed to open it up, concentrating on the screen. "Locked," he observed with venom. Closing it again, he returned his gaze to his prisoners. He tossed it to Leonardo nonchalantly, as if hoping the turtle would open it up for him. Leo easily caught it and tucked it close to him, but didn't take his eyes off of the Shredder.

"Do not act so defiantly, turtle," the Shredder started up again, ignoring Raphael's snarl. "It was you that had a taste of that poison?"

"Poison?" Leo repeated, trying to hide the surprise from his face. "What do you know about that?" His tone became suspicious and angry. He was sure that he was hurting his family by not knowing most of them, and he didn't want to bear that responsibility.

Although the brothers couldn't see Shredder's face with his mask on, they could tell that he was once again reveling in his glory. "I was under the impression you would have figured it out by now. In my possession I have a newly developed poison that will clear your memory of petty things that will get in my way. You will become my faithful servants to do my bidding, rather than fight against me." As if on cue, a ninja reappeared with a small bundle of items, presumably the poison he spoke of. "One injection to each of you will make you my slaves, and there is nothing you can do about it."

Leonardo rolled his eyes at the man's last line despite himself. "Is this some sort of threat?"

"Yes. With controlled dosages, only select memories will be eliminated, to never come back. I have developed a way to erase what I want and nothing else. Your ninja training will remain intact, as well as some other important knowledge for my sake, but your pesky bond will be eradicated, and you will have no problem tracking down the rest of your clan for me … and bring me that cat."

Leo glanced over at Raph, skepticism on his face. What Shredder was explaining sounded extremely sci-fi to him, and that was coming from a mutant turtle accustomed to fighting ninja nearly every day. "You're giving us an out," Leo observed. The Shredder wouldn't be threatening the pair of them otherwise, and he would get straight to the point.

"Bring the other turtles to me, and that cat, and I will spare you the poison." He set the bundle down on a counter alongside the turtles' weapons. Without waiting for a response, he disappeared out the door, shutting it firmly behind him.

Raphael and Leonardo were silent for a long time, thinking it over.

"I think he's bluffin'," Raph eventually commented.

Leonardo shook his head. "I don't know, Raph. You haven't been affected with this poison to know how it feels."

A grunt escaped from the red clad turtle. "Right."

Metallic clinking sounded over the room as Leonardo shifted, unlocking the cell to call Donatello's. "Whatever's going on, I think it's time for backup."

"Isn't that playin' right inta Shredder's hands?"

"No," Leo replied firmly, holding up a finger for silence. He heard ringing on the other side, and he wanted to hear Donatello's voice when he picked up.


	13. Called In

Michelangelo eventually excused himself from Donatello's room without a single question about his motives. Don felt like he was more in the dark than ever before, mostly because he _knew_ that he understood how things worked a mere week ago, but now he couldn't grasp on to the same knowledge. He figured that Mikey was trying to brighten his spirits, but after a short while of near unresponsiveness from Don, the orange clad turtle gave up. Patience, after all, was not his strong suit.

As soon as Mikey set foot outside Donatello's door, Lila was upon him. The two turtles that had left earlier ignored the cat in their haste to make it out the door, while Splinter had merely nodded at her in his passing. Michelangelo, on the other hand, didn't appear to be so occupied, and Lila knew that he was the last out of the room, excluding her closest friend. "How is he?" she whispered to the bummed turtle, causing him to jump; he had forgotten about her.

Once he had himself under control, he tossed her a shrug as he headed toward the staircase. "I dunno," he replied quietly so that Donatello could not hear his voice carry. "He doesn't remember me."

"I heard," Lila responded carefully, standing up to her full height to set a light hand on his arm. "Mikey, there are worse things than this, and you can't go forgetting that. Your family is falling apart before your very eyes, and I can't help but feel responsible." Her hands slipped to her side, her head hung.

Stopping, Mikey caught Lila by the shoulders as he turned around to face her. "Hey," he breathed quietly, "this isn't your fault. It's the Shredder." A grin spread across his face, even if it wasn't entirely genuine. "And there's no reason to sulk." Letting go of her shoulders, he snatched her hand in his own and pulled her down the remainder of the hallway to the stairs. "Come on!"

The two of them were across the remainder of the lair within seconds. Letting go of Lila's paw, Mikey flipped on the television, but when he turned around to confront Lila again, he saw the most naïve expression on her face. "Uh … Lila?" He waved his hand on front of her face, causing her to blink.

"It flickers," she commented, crouching in order to take a couple steps forward. Her nose was inches away from a monitor. "Is it … m-magic?"

Michelangelo managed to keep a laugh bursting through his mouth. "It's a T.V.," he informed her, hoping that the novelty of it would soon pass. "It, uh, it's normal."

Lila's eyes flashed to Mikey's face, her ears perked more than he had ever seen them. "Really? I've never seen anything remotely as wondrous before."

Mikey mouthed Lila's words, his brows pulled together. "Right. So I guess it's too much to ask if ya wanna play video games?"

"Video games?" Lila questioned, the new vocabulary flying over her head. "Are they magic?"

Mikey couldn't help but slap his hand to his forehead. "No. They're normal, too."

Taking a couple steps backwards, Lila plopped on to the couch, comprehension of the world obvious on her face. Still snickering to himself, Mikey intended to broaden her experiences of New York by sticking a video game into the console, but before he could, Donatello was calling him. Confusion coated his voice, but the words he used said otherwise.

"Hold on," Mikey said to Lila before taking off to Don's room. Once he reached the door, he peeked inside. "What's up?"

"I heard ringing," Donatello replied, looking around the room despite the fact that he hadn't gotten up from the bed.

Mikey scratched the top of his head. "Yeah. It's your cell, dude."

A brief look of hesitation crossed Don's face, but he quickly covered it up. "I knew that. I don't know where it is."

"Afraid to get up, bro?" Mikey crossed the room and peered at Don's desk, the best candidate for where the phone could be. Skimming his gaze over a few miscellaneous gadgets he didn't understand, he eventually picked up the one he was looking for and handed it over. "Here."

"Thanks." Donatello stared at it, pressing a button to open it up. "It was Leo," he mused, looking up at Mikey. "Why do you suppose he called?"

A shrug was his initial answer. "I dunno. Maybe him and Raph are in trouble."

Donatello's look darkened slightly at the idea. "You're probably right." Swinging his legs over the bed, he looked Mikey squarely in the face. "Why else would they be calling?"

"Dude, you sure you can get up?" Mikey asked nervously, holding up a hand. "I mean, just before you wouldn't get up to get your phone."

Don shook his head, rising carefully to his feet. "No, I'm fine."

"Maybe we should call them back?"

"There might not be enough time," Don reasoned, pushing past Mikey to get out the door. "I've just got to grab my bo, and we should go."

Mikey followed his older brother, trying not to act so worried. "Nothing else?" Donatello was always the turtle that came prepared. Normally when the four of them were heading out for some mission, he always took the time not to grab his bo, but nearly everything in his lab.

The purple clad turtle cast a glance behind him at his brother, but didn't verbally respond. Taking the stairs a little slowly, he soon crossed the lair and was waiting by the door with his weapon strapped across his back. "Ready?"

The energetic turtle nodded. "Yup. Let's go." He moved to follow Don out the door, but quickly turned around upon remembering Lila. "Uh, be back!" he called before disappearing.

Lila gave a quick nod of her head before she curled up on the couch, her eyes still watching the television monitor with fascination.

Donatello kept a steady pace through the sewers, his balance perfect as he navigated the areas of slime. His brother followed without a word, playing the concerned brother for Don to make sure that he was indeed all together. Every time the purple clad turtle came to a junction in the sewers, he paused, making sure to hide his face from Mikey. At the second time around, Donatello turned around to face his little brother, his face devoid of clues as to what he was thinking.

"What?" Mikey asked uncertainly, his eyes darting to the tunnel that they must take.

Don shrugged, following his brother's gaze briefly without taking his full attention away. "You mind leading? I … uh, have to think a few things over." His excuse was weak, and he knew it, but he was hoping that Michelangelo wouldn't ask any questions, same as before.

"Oh really …?" Mikey's eye ridges shot upwards, and his voice expressed his disbelief, but he was beginning to catch the hint. "Yeah, sure. Follow me, bro." Taking a couple shuffling steps, he began making tracks, but watched out for Donatello behind him so that he didn't get lost. Once he was sure that he would be followed, his pace turned into something more comfortable and less awkward.

More time was spent in silence and Mikey managed to keep his questions silent. He wondered if Don actually knew that it was his cell ringing in his room, and if he had really lost his way in the sewers. Donatello had made it clear that he had picked up the poison as well, but a part of Mikey didn't want the old Don to change at all. It appeared that he had more to forget than Leo did. Depending on the amount of essential knowledge Don had yielded to the poison, the turtles really could come out on the bottom in this squabble with the Shredder. Such a thing could not happen. Not to them.

"Donny …" Mikey's voice came out quietly, enough so that Don could barely hear him over the water in the sewers.

The turtle lifted his head to look at his forgotten brother, taking his time in replying. "Yes?"

"Do you … do you remember how to fight? 'Cause I can't do this alone." Mikey had wrapped his head around the fact that Don was forgetting _some _things, but the specifics were still lost on him.

"Of course." Donatello's voice expressed his confidence. "It's not as bad as you think," he reassured, setting a hand on Mikey's shoulder. While the turtle was still a stranger to Don, he wasn't going to give up in the empathy category.

Mikey nodded weakly, pulling to a stop at a manhole cover. "Okay. We're here."

"Oh, come on, I wasn't that far gone," Donatello replied with an eye roll. Despite his refusal to accept that Mikey had read the cover-ups, Don still refused to admit anything outright. Gesturing for Mikey to take the lead, Donatello took the rungs in his hand and made his way to the surface.

The pair of them stared at the skyscraper before them, thoughtful expressions on both of their faces. They made sure to stick to the shadows so that onlookers would find it neigh impossible to see them, but they remained in area where they could see their target completely. Under silent agreement, neither of them made an immediate move to the building.

"Any plans?" Mikey hoped that Donatello's brain wasn't hindered in that respect. Leo was normally the turtle to keep things going, but when the fearless leader was at a loss, it was typically Donatello that stood up with a plan of action.

"Not a very good one," Don admitted after a few seconds thought. "I don't—er—know how much time we have on our hands for anything elaborate."

Mikey blinked before narrowing his eyes. "So? We can't just walk through the front door, bro."

"Actually …" Donatello's gaze became glued on those very doors. "That was my plan."

"What?" Mikey failed to cover up his mouth until after the exclamation. As soon as he was sure that his loudness wouldn't reveal their position, he continued a little more softly. "You think Shredder's just gonna let us dance in there and grab our brothers? Donny, uh, maybe _you_ need your head checked."

A sly smirk on his face, Don glanced sideways at Mikey. "Oh yeah, did I fail to mention I forgot the Shredder and his Foot?"

Mikey's eyes flew wide open. "Seriously?"

"No." Don's voice became serious again. "I told you, my amnesia is not as bad as you're portraying it. In general, I know what I'm doing."

"Great. In general?" Mikey quoted, unable to keep a sour look from spreading across his face. As time went on, just from the lair to where they were at, Mikey was aware that the situation wasn't looking too bright. Normally he was able to keep his chin up, but after Don forgot him, he was having a hard time coping. Dealing with the genius now was a little heart breaking. It was hard to look at the fact that the two of them were almost interacting naturally, before the poison was introduced into their lives.

"Ignore that," Don advised, staring at the doors again. "Look, if you have a better plan _after_ I describe mine, go ahead and shout it out. Otherwise, the more time we waste bickering, the more trouble m—our brothers get into. Capiche?"

Mikey pretended to ignore more than Don's slight uncertainty with himself. "Right. So what you thinking?"

"I'll be a decoy, so to speak. Before you say it, I know it'll be dangerous, but I'm confident in my fighting skills enough to keep from killing myself. This isn't a suicide attempt. But I'll walk into the lobby, creating a distraction enough so that you can sneak inside, preferably not the same way that I came inside, and find Leo and Raph. If you need to … I probably won't be able to hold a thousand ninjas off for long, so they'll probably take me to where they are, and you can follow me."

"That's a lot of probablies."

"Eh … now I know how Leo feels. You make things up as you go along." Donatello shrugged sheepishly, feeling heat along his cheeks.

"I don't like it," Mikey admitted obstinately, a pout pulling across his features.

Pulling himself back under control, Don took another sidelong glance at his brother. "I offered the chance to give your own input."

"But I don't have any other ideas, dude," Mikey whined, continuing his act. "You said it yourself—your plan is suicidal!"

"Bordering suicidal," Don corrected confidently before adding a snicker. "So you really don't have anything?"

Mikey thrust his hands outwards, signaling that he was empty-handed, or in his case, empty-minded. Reading the body language, Donatello didn't leave another second for thought before he jumped up, darted across the street, and put his plan into action.

"Hey!" Mikey called after him, but the attempt was futile; Donatello was already through the doors. Glancing quickly up and down the streets, Mikey surreptitiously made his way across the streets, waiting for some sort of cue to begin his infiltration.

As soon as the quarterstaff-wielder was through the front doors, ninja were there waiting for him. Bringing his bo around to engage them, Don immediately began maneuvering the throng to a side of the room so that they were not discovered and so that Mikey would have an easier time getting through if he so wished. Multiple weapons caught on the wood of Don's staff as he brought it around so that a swift end could be brought by his foot.

All of his arguments to Michelangelo, saying that his ninja skills were not hindered by the poison, turned out to be true. He slowly backed himself into a corner as much as he dared, enough so that he wouldn't have to worry about his backside, but also so that he could freely swing his weapon around. At first he was able to duck around the trajectory of weapons, or catch them with his bo, sometimes catching feet and fists as they flew at him, but as the merciless fighting went on, Don noticed he was visibly failing. Swords got past his defenses, nicking his arms and hands. Donatello thrust out with his staff, knocking a few ninja off of their game, but more came at him. Eventually, all it took was one swordsman to cause enough pain for Don to drop his weapon, and then to his knees. A final blow knocked him out, but none of the ninja yet dared to take him out completely.

The fight against the lone turtle complete, the subordinate ninja turned to their superiors, and carted the defeated off to the same room as his brothers, as was Don's plans.


	14. We're Thinking

The door opened to the room-like cell the brothers were being kept inside. Leonardo looked up from his hands, which were still holding the homemade phone Donatello had constructed himself, to look openly at the reason behind it. What he saw was not promising.

An unconscious and bloodied Don was dragged into the room to be dumped unceremoniously onto the floor beside Raph. None of the ninja surrounding him moved to chain him up like Raph and Leo were, figuring that the brainy turtle would be out of commission long enough for the Shredder to get what he wanted. Once the masked men were assured that things would be fine, they filed back outside of the door, slamming it closed behind them. As soon as the turtles were sure that they were gone, they showed their true feelings.

"Donny!" Raph hissed frantically, reaching to touch his younger brother to ensure that he was still alive. "What the fuck happened to you?"

Leonardo didn't care to scold his brother on his language, instead pushing his shell away from the wall to get a better look at Don. "He came …" he whispered so that Raph could barely hear him. "I did this to him."

Raphael whipped around to stare evenly at Leo. "Don't be kiddin' yerself, Leo," he barked, his hand still on Don's arm. "He didn't even answer when ya called, how could you have—"

"Raph, don't try to justify otherwise. I shouldn't have …" Leonardo hung his head, taking in a breath. "I can't believe he just …"

A short silence stretched between the two of them. "Yeah … why the hell didn't he have a plan? I thought he was …" A quick look at Leonardo caused him to cut himself short. Clearing his throat, he tried again, "I mean, I don't think he did what you're thinkin'."

Leo's sharp gaze turned to Raph's face. "You think so? And what, exactly, am I thinking, Raph?"

Years of their endless squabble made Raphael nearly immune to Leo's harsh looks. "Donny bein' here's gotta be a bigger plan 'n we're thinkin'. He didn't jus' throw himself at Shredder." He paused. "Where's Mikey, anyway?"

Leonardo visibly paused. "Don left Mikey to free us?" The question wasn't to Raph, but to himself.

"I knew callin' 'em was a bad idea," Raph belatedly argued.

"There's nothing we can do about it now!" Leo shouted in retaliation, automatically shutting Raphael up. He didn't often see the leader blow his calm visage like that, so when he did, it was a momentous occasion, indeed.

A couple seconds passed before Leo was able to get a hold of himself again. "Now," he began, his voice just as calm as before. Raph was almost as unnerved by that as his sudden outburst. "Do you think you can wake him? He isn't chained like us, and if Mikey really isn't here, then Donny's our only chance."

Raphael glanced at Don, tapping his fingers lightly against his brother's cheek. "I don't think so, Leo," he informed Leo softly. "He took a beatin'…."

Leo sighed, bringing his hands up to his head to massage his temples. "Then I guess we wait." Looking up from Donatello's face, Raph shot a hot-tempered glare at his older brother, but had the mind to keep his mouth shut for once.

.

Michelangelo felt a brief moment of panic when he saw the ninja press in on Don. All of his instincts told him to jump up and follow his brother so that he could help him against the flow of enemies, but he knew better than to compromise the whole mission and help the brainiac. His role was clearly placed in front of him before Don committed a terrible sacrifice, so he had to make sure that he did his best to carry it out. Using all of his ninja skills acquired over his lifetime, he made his way inside of the building undetected, positioning himself so that he could follow Don once his fight was over. Emotions continued to rush over Mikey as he saw Donatello failing, but with the warrior mindset in place, he knew that he couldn't let them take over; all of his life he had done a fair job masking them anyway, so now was no different.

Taking his time so as not to reveal himself, Mikey followed the ninja carrying Donatello's unconscious body. Moving through air ducts with ease to better disguise his movement through the stronghold, Mikey stayed as silent as he could be. A couple of times he lost sight of his brother, but all he had to do was strain his ears and he found them. He found it a little humorous that he could hear the ninja in order to keep up with them, but he couldn't dwell on the feeling.

A door was opened and the sounds of scuffing told Mikey that something important was happening. Positioning himself to see what was going on, he saw that when the ninja exited the room, Donatello was no longer with them. Still peering through the metal grate, he waited until they were out of sight and sound before quietly removing the metal barrier and dropping down to the ground. Glancing around, he made sure the coast was clear before opening up the door, happy to find that it was unlocked.

Leonardo's eyes flew wide, but Mikey held a thick finger up to his beak to signal silence. A grim look spread across the leader's face before he added a grave nod, almost like a dismissal. Raphael, on the other hand, didn't take the hint as heavily. "Sai," he hissed suggestively. Mikey's confused look brought on a huff of irritation, but he nonetheless jerked his head in the direction of the counter, loaded with their personal belongings.

Mouthing a quick thanks, Mikey pushed past the door without actually closing it, and sifted through the things before coming up with Raph's sai. Once it was in his hand, he walked it over, once again glancing down the hallway to make sure that the coast was clear.

As soon as the sai was in Raph's hand, he set to work on releasing him and his brother from the chains. He made sure that he didn't shift too much in case the Foot were close enough to hear the rattles, but some sounds were inevitable. Quickly enough, his chains were off, and he was working with the ones holding Leonardo down. Michelangelo set to work with sorting through the items on the counter, eventually coming across a medical set. Holding up a needle, he peered at it, but before he could do anything else, Leo snatched it out of his hands. "Don't," he whispered harshly, grabbing at his weapons on the counter.

"Sorry, dude," Mikey whispered back, checking through the door again. "We're gonna have a hard time gettin' out."

"We'll deal with that," Raphael gruffly whispered. His sai was tucked in his belt, both of his arms around Donatello's body. "Now gimme a little help."

Wandering over to his brothers, Michelangelo lent a hand to support Donatello. As soon as he was sure that the unconscious turtle was safe in both of their arms, he looked up expectantly at Leonardo, whom had just finished putting all of the items on the counter onto his person. A hand signal from him informed the brothers to move out, which they did without question.

The Shredder wasn't dumb, Leonardo knew; he had to have known that something was up when Donatello singly attacked the stronghold with Raphael and Leonardo already taken prisoner inside. Still, as they wandered through the pristine hallways of the tower, they didn't encounter a single Foot ninja.

"Raph," Leo hissed in his brothers' direction, not daring to take his eyes off of the hallway before them.

"What?" Raph called back, a scowl across his face. The longer they took to get out of the building, the heavier Donatello was becoming, even with Mikey's help to hold him up.

Leonardo took his sweet time in reply, looking through a couple of the doors before deciding upon one. "Which way do you think is the best way out? Some of them won't work with Donny out of commission." Donny was the name he had heard most when coming out of his brothers' mouths, and Leo's decided name for the face he had forgotten.

Silence stretched between the three of them as Mikey and Raph thought it over. "Even though it'll be tough," Mikey began hesitantly, but was encouraged with Leo's look, "my way through the ducts wasn't that bad. If we can get Don through them … we'll be on our way home."

"You came here through those?" Raph questioned skeptically, his eyes narrowing with displeasure. "Great."

"What?" Mikey asked cluelessly.

Raph nodded in Leonardo's direction. "He's considerin' it."

A smile spreading softly across Leo's face, he shook his head in disagreement. "Not considering it, Raph, using it." Instead looking around the corridors for more doors to lead them out of the building, Leonardo looked to the ceiling for weak spots in the air conditioning. As soon as he found one, he worked on removing the cover with precision, and then lifted himself into the tiny hole. Raph was surprised that he fit.

Sticking his face back over the hole to look down at his brothers, Leonardo whispered, "Any chance you can give me Donny?"

"Will do," Mikey replied quickly, and then added, "but you'll need help lifting him up."

Leo gave the hinted suggested quick thought. "Raph, can you handle—"

"Just hurry," Raph grunted, taking all of Donatello's weight. "I swear …"

"You'll do no such thing. C'mon Mikey, hurry up."

Making sure that Raphael had Don under control, Mikey jumped up into the air duct across from Leo, sticking out his hand to take Donny. Once Leo did the same, Raphael used his strength to get Donatello within the grasp, using his hands to keep him under control once his brothers had a hold of him. As soon as he was lifted out of sight, he leaped up after them.

"This is awkward," Leonardo commented after a minute, pulling Don's body delicately through the ducts. "I can't see where I'm going."

"And you're goin' as slow as a fuckin' snail," Raph barked in reply.

"Left," Mikey provided helpfully.

"Thank-you, _Mikey,"_ Leo replied pointedly. He paused momentarily to glance down at the floor below them, but when he saw nothing, he began pushing forward once again. He admitted that the going was slow, and that he was probably inflicting additional wounds to Donatello by dragging him along the metal, but they had taken the easier route. Unfortunately, the easier route is often never the best.

Another turn was soon reached, and after more directions from Michelangelo, the turtles soon met the end of that road. Looking past his unconscious brother and Raphael, Leo got a lock on Mikey's face. "Now what?" he whispered urgently, hoping that Mikey's ingenious pathway would end as smoothly.

"We have a little run to make …" Mikey replied sheepishly, glancing downwards meaningfully.

"With Donny like _this?"_ Leo demanded, gesturing angrily. Gritting his teeth together, he scooted a couple more inches so that he could see through the last grate at the end of the piping. "Hold on a moment …" he begged softly, exhaling.

Raph glanced backwards over his shell at Mikey, his expression portraying what he wanted to say. Michelangelo shrugged helplessly. "It's better than walking the _whole_ way, bro."

"We're going to have to do this fast," Leo decided, grabbing on to Don's shoulders to pull him forward again until Leo had no more room to move. "I'll get myself out, catch Don … hopefully," he added quietly, "and … you two need to hurry up and aide me."

"Got it," Raph grunted, tensing in preparation for battle.

Without saying any more, Leonardo struck out with his leg, knocking the grated cover off. Before it even clattered the floor, Leo shoved himself after it, landing cleanly on the floor. The echoes from the metal reverberated around the room, but there was nothing more he could do about it. Glancing upwards, while keeping the status of the room up-to-date in his peripheral, Leo readied himself to catch his unconscious brother. He wasn't expecting his weight to be so great. Dropping him ungracefully, yet gently to the floor, Leonardo scooted the both of them out of the way so that Raph and Mikey could come down as well.

It was then that the room filled up with Foot ninja yet again. "Care to dance?" Leonardo mocked, pulling out his swords. He was sore yet from the previous fight, but with his and his brothers' lives on the line, he would have to ignore it. Now he had to fend the hordes off before they got to Donatello. "Go!" he barked behind him at his brothers. He saw Raphael flit to his side to assist, but Leonardo didn't find leaving Michelangelo alone to deal with their unconscious brother helpful at all. "Go!" he repeated, making his way over through the Foot to get by his side. "Mikey needs you."

"But—"

"Don't question me," Leonardo threatened lowly, cutting an arc through the crowd. He found it surprising that a weapon wasn't lifted or lowered to hinder the blade's progress, but it took out a large amount of ninja.

"Fine. Jus' hurry up, okay?" With that, Raphael turned around, sending a final kick before helping Michelangelo carry the dead weight out the door. Disappearing into the shadowy side of a building, the two waited anxiously for their elder brother. Raphael became antsy when he didn't come immediately, but eventually his form appeared to dash blindly across the street.

"Keep … moving," Leonardo gasped, his hand grasping at his side. "We don't have a lot of time."

Michelangelo continued his silence, removing a manhole cover before slipping down the ladder, Raphael following with Donatello held firmly in his arms, and Leonardo bringing up the tow. As he slid the cover back into place, he let out an audible sigh of relief.

"Let's get home," he suggested, moving to Raph's side to help carry Donatello. "We need some rest."

"Amen," Mikey agreed cheekily.


	15. New Calling

Beyond the ever increasing muscle soreness as the family made it through the sewers, the trip was uneventful. Raphael continued to glance over his shoulder in a paranoid manner to check that the coast was clear, but he never saw anything. Leo kept his other senses open, hoping that what he could not see, he could sense, but he detected just as much as his brother.

"We're here," Mikey announced needlessly, relief plain in his voice. He tapped on the hidden door to their lair, but instead of opening it, he looked behind him to catch sight of his brothers. Mikey had had to pace himself through the sewers so that Leo and Raph could keep up with him, since Donatello was still out of it.

"Then open the damn door already," Raph barked. He was hurting, Donatello was getting heavier as time wore on, and Mikey didn't care to notice; he thought he had a legitimate reason to be angry at this time.

Turning around, Mikey fiddled with the door, quickly getting it to open. Muttering a quick apology over his shell, he stood aside as the hydraulic door opened itself, allowing the four of them inside. Michelangelo immediately headed over to the couch to get himself comfortable, while his other brothers slowly made their way to the staircase.

Lila caught up with them halfway across the room, her fear of Raphael and the others apparently vanished. "What happened?" she demanded, seeing Donatello's wounds and inability to stay conscious.

"What do you think happened?" Raph snapped, plowing forth.

Leonardo sighed at his younger brother's sharp attitude. "Our plans fell through," he replied more helpfully. "Don apparently used himself as bait and didn't fare so well."

Lila nodded to show that she understood. "Shall I go and alert Master Splinter?" she questioned, already tensing to dart off in his direction.

A second passed while Leo debated it. "N-not right now … we can take care of this ourselves."

Quick understanding flashed behind Lila's eyes. "Do you even know whom I am talking about?"

"What?" Leo asked distractedly. His and Raphael's progress had been slowed due to the stairs. "I know who you're talking about, sure, but I don't have any memories of him." Pausing for a moment, he caught Lila's eyes with his own. "Please … Raph and I have to take care of Donny." With that being said, he turned back around and set his mind to helping his brothers.

Lila was slightly taken aback by Leonardo's dismissive behavior. While she didn't know the personalities of the group that well, from what she knew about the turtle before his amnesia, he was not like this. Besides, he was the one that invited her to conversation, only to push her away moments later. Shaking it off, she padded over to Mikey, whom had the magical television on. "Hi," she greeted, leaning on the back of the couch beside him.

Michelangelo peered to his side to acknowledge the cat before turning back to the screen. "Hi," he replied. "S'up?"

She shrugged, even though he wasn't watching. "I was hoping that I might be able to help your brothers, but I was pushed aside as if I were some kind of pest. I thought that you would provide more pleasurable company."

Peeling his eyes away from the television set, Mikey studied her for a moment. "Okay. Whatcha wanna do?" Their interaction from before wasn't too promising, so he wasn't quite sure what to think.

"Remember when Leonardo pulled you aside to help teach me self defense?" Lila inquired, as if her question was a perfect answer to his.

Mikey nodded. "Yeah." He paused for a moment, wondering where she was going with the conversation.

"Do you suppose that you could continue such training? I don't intend to be a thorn in your sides, but I understand the threat of our enemy. Some experience is better than none at all, no matter whom it comes from."

A long moment passed between the two of them, Mikey's mouth held agape. "You mean … you want me to teach you ninjitsu?"

Lila nodded an affirmation. "If that is what the art form is labeled."

"Okay, Lila dude, you _gotta_ stop speaking all weird. It's confusing me."

"My apologies."

Mikey narrowed his eyes. "You did it again."

Lila hesitated. "I am sorry."

A smile pulled at Michelangelo's lips. "Uh, I guess I can do it, but I dunno what you want to learn."

"I am positive I have more basics to learn, beyond what Leonardo has already taught me."

Mikey got up from the couch, flipping the television off before lightly tossing the remote aside. Leaping easily over the back of the couch, he stood beside the shorter feline. He stuck his hands on his hips, straightening his shoulders in an exaggerated move. "Sensei Mikey to the rescue," he announced before dropping his pose, a dopey expression on his face.

Lila stared at him worriedly, though kept herself from stepping back. "Rescue may be stretching the truth," she admitted, though not unkindly. "If you would, shall we begin?"

Shrugging, Mikey paced away from the couch into a less crowded area. "Sure. Ya know, I don't even like training myself sometimes. At least you're just learning."

Lila followed him on four feet, padding quietly behind him. At his last comment, she stopped and looked up to him, balancing at a squat on her hind legs. "Sometimes you learn just as much from the pupil as a teacher," she commented, waiting for some type of command from him.

"Uh, sure," Mikey promptly replied. "So what do ya know?"

Lila shrugged uncomfortably. "I was hoping that you would know more of how to teach me than I would myself. I have a limited knowledge of fighting in general, so my know-how of progress is thus impeded."

Mikey held up a firm hand, eyes wide. "Okay, stop there." He shook his head, as if he could throw away his bewilderment with a physical movement. "Just … stop talking." He narrowed his eyes at the cat. "Are you doing this on purpose?"

A sly smirk spread across Lila's muzzle before she looked guiltily down at the floor. "Now Michelangelo, what could you be talking about?"

"Ah-ha!" Mikey pointed a dramatic, accusing finger at her. "I knew it! I can't work in these conditions." With that, he started to saunter off.

Lila threw herself in his path, staring up at him with wide eyes. "I'm sorry, Michelangelo," she apologized, even if she didn't exactly understand what had just transpired. "I didn't mean to offend you, and I really wish that you would teach me. What I meant to say was, I do not know everything that is expected of me, and cannot make up my own curriculum. That … would be your job, as teacher."

Mikey was a little thrown off-guard when his own trick was tossed right back in his face. _He _gave the baby eyes to his brothers to get his way. No one else would dare pull that trick to get _Mikey_ to do something. Each of the brothers had their own underhand ways of manipulation. Blinking his way back to the present, Mikey decided to cave in. "Okay, fine. Y'know, I tried teaching someone how to fight once. It … didn't really work."

Lila paused in thought, standing stock still. "Leonardo was approaching it in a very tame manner. He said that he was teaching me the building blocks upon which one would later build after pursuing the art form. Last time he was teaching me how to best evade an enemy, a skill that I could put to much better use than to play offense."

"He said _that?"_

"Not exactly that; I was paraphrasing."

"So … uh, what do you want me to teach you?"

"Expanding upon my last lesson, of which you were a part of at the very end, would be a wonderful idea. I don't need to learn how to _fight. _I need to learn how to stay alive. Evasion would be perfect."

"So the sneaky part of ninjitsu."

"… yes."

An evil grin spread across Michelangelo's face, a mischievous flicker of his eyes adding to the sinister look. "You've come to the right person, Lila. No one can beat my sneaky ninja moves."

"Boasting may not be to your best interest."

Mikey waved a hand in the air, shrugging her comment off. "Whatever. Now, the best way to be sneaky is to _stay_ sneaky."

Lila nodded slowly as she wrapped her tail around herself. She had already known that Michelangelo liked to talk, and it was for that reason that she had avoided him throughout her time with the turtles. Now, however, he was the only one that would talk to her, and she had been idle for too long.

"You gotta use the shadows, like you're a part of them. _And_ you have to stay silent." He paused, thought obvious on his face. "You're a cat, so you're sneaky, right?"

Lila shrugged. "I thought that I was quiet when moving up until I met you and your family. When Donatello was bringing me through the stinky corridors, I couldn't hear his footsteps at all, but I could hear mine."

Mikey nodded with uncharacteristic sage understanding. "You gotta start out slow. Put your foot down in pieces."

"What?"

"Like, step on the side of your foot, and then slowly lower the rest of your foot to the ground. Once you get the hang of it, you can walk faster!" He walked around Lila using the technique to show her an example. "Now you try."

Rising to her two hind feet, Lila mimicked Michelangelo's movements. Her tail lashed back and forth behind her to keep her balance before she eventually fell over to her front two feet for support. Looking up to her mentor, she frowned. "Would it not work if I simply walked more slowly and purposefully? I do not believe my paws are constructed for walking the same way as yours."

Mikey shrugged. "I'm just telling you how I walk." A grin spread across his face. "And it's funny to see you try to walk that way."

Lila sighed, pushing herself to her hind feet again. Sucking in a lungful of breath, she tried again. This time, instead of trying to walk in an unnatural way, she concentrated on walking slowly and purposefully in her own step. A smile sprang to her face when she couldn't hear herself.

"Uh … good job."

Lila looked up to his face. "You don't sound very pleased to have taught me something useful."

"Nah, that was just … fast. You're a quick learner."

"When you live in a nasty environment, you learn how to learn quickly. You did well."

Mikey puffed his chest out at this comment. "Cool. Is that it?"

Lila considered his question. She had come up to him, hoping that he would have been as good of a teacher as his brother, but had been disappointed with the whole interaction. Eventually, she nodded. "Sure. Continue whatever it was that you were doing."

His smile broadened as he skipped back to the televisions.


	16. Painful Reckoning

With Raph's aide, Leo was able to gently set Donatello on his bed so that he could rest off his injuries peacefully. Leo's hands were shaking from energy exhaustion and from the recent stress catching up to him, but he did well in hiding it from his still conscious brother.

"That trip better be worth it," Raph muttered after a long moment of silence. He leaned against a wall of Donatello's room, watching his brother sleep.

Leo looked up from the floor and at his belligerent brother. "It was, Raph. We learned why the Shredder wants Lila so badly and why we must prevent him from getting her, and we got a cure for … our condition." He gestured weakly towards Don.

"Ya really sure that's what it is?" Raph's voice wasn't accusing or angry. Instead, Leo thought he detected a little hint of fear in it. He really was set in thinking that the Shredder had screwed the turtles another time over.

"It has to be, Raph. What else would it be?"

"I dunno. The Shredder could put somethin' in front of our faces, make us think it's an antidote, an' laugh when we use it t' kill ourselves." He pushed himself away from the wall, his brow pulling tightly with concern. _"Think_ about it, Leo. Do we really want t' put our trust in this?"

Leo frowned, jerking his eyes away from his brother out of discomfort. "You don't know what it's like," he whispered. "I have these big, black holes in my memories. Thinking back, I remember parts of our childhood and adventures, but for the life of me, I _cannot remember Donatello._ I've tried so hard to recall him and … and Master Splinter. It keeps me up at night. I know myself enough to know that I _shouldn't_ have forgotten, and that pains me even more.

"I've tried talking to Don, hoping that I could get to know him again, but he's distant. He keeps to himself, and whenever he comes out for a breather, he pointedly looks away from me and ignores my prodding questions. And now that he can't remember, either, things have continuously gone downhill. _He_ now understands my frustration.

"Raph, what the Shredder did to us hurts on a completely different level than anything I've ever experienced before. We've tried Donatello's way, we've tried our way, and we're still grasping at straws. I'll take any out that I can so that we can become a complete family again. When someone's in pain, they don't think logically. That's our situation."

A long silence passed between the two turtles. Raph's expression was thoughtful for the most part, until he eventually emitted an unsatisfied grunt. "Wrote that all out an' memorized that, didja?"

Leo picked his gaze up from the floor and sent a flat stare in Raphael's direction.

"I'm just sayin' that what we picked up prob'ly isn't even a real cure. You're desperate, but I think Donny figurin' this out is a better idea." He shrugged, leaning backwards against the wall again.

"Remember, he's subject to this poison, too. There's no knowing what he forgot." Leo didn't understand why everyone put so much faith in his forgotten brother, but it was a little worrisome. Did they not understand that if Donatello was impaired, as he was now, that the whole team would come tumbling not soon after?

Raph hesitated, his breath catching in his throat. "Okay, if he forgot how t' make us a cure, do we still trust the Shredder? Leo, I'm tellin' ya, don't do it."

Turning his back, Leo fished out the tiny medical kit he had stolen from the Shredder's room. Popping the case open, he held up the needle filled with the hopeful curing serum. "It's labeled, Raph."

"So?" Raph hissed furiously. "That don't mean a thing!"

"I need to remember." His sinking composure emphasized his words.

Raph set his face grimly. "So if it's a real cure, yer gonna give it to yerself an' screw Donny over? Ain't that syringe the only thing in that box?"

A small gasp escaped from Leo's mouth. Looking the box over, and then searching the small amount of items he stuffed into secure areas, his face pulled into a very worried expression. "There's only one dose."

"You keep goin' on about how selfish we all—"

_"Shut up,"_ Leo snapped lowly. "I know." Setting the syringe back in the box, he closed it up and set it on Donatello's nightstand. "I know." He sighed heavily, looking over his slumbering brother. "Raph … I don't know what to do."

Raph wasn't sure of what to think about Leo's behavior. At the last part, he felt extremely sorry for his normally level-headed leader, but he couldn't let such a thing show. "Maybe Don would know." He scowled to himself, but continued: "We always work best as a team."

Leo nodded slowly. "That makes sense. Thanks, Raph."

.

Donatello stirred on his bed, eventually opening his eyes with a small groan. Leo and Raph looked down at him expectantly, silent in their anticipation. While it took their younger brother a while to pull himself to complete awareness, when he finally did, he showed signs that besides some major bumps and bruises, he would heal from the whole ordeal.

"Uh … morning?"

Leo glanced at the bedside clock, shaking his head. "No, more like the middle of the night. How do you feel?"

Don took his time in answer, taking mental assessments of the damage dealt to him earlier in the day. "I've been better. Why are you in here?"

"Don … we need your help." Raph nodded helpfully. "We managed to grab a single dose of a cure for our condition, but there are two of us."

Curiosity spread over Don's face. "Okay."

Uncomfortable silence followed the statement.

"So … uh, we need your opinion on what we should do. We were hoping that you could possibly duplicate the—"

"Leo," Donatello cut in, softly and kindly. "I don't … I wouldn't be able to do that."

"Why?" Raph demanded, hiding the jolt of fear.

"Everything you all expect me to do, I've forgotten. I can't navigate the sewers, I don't know how to work my phone, let alone recreate a chemical concoction! I have this inkling that I used to know, and now feel completely worthless. I … couldn't tell M-Mikey this." He hung his head, hiding his eyes from his brothers'.

Leo's mouth hung open for a moment before he was able to compose himself. "Then we could give you the serum, and you can recreate it from … whatever it is you do," he suggested hopefully.

Don shook his head, lifting his face again. "I don't think that's a good idea. What if I can never recreate it?"

"Then you should still take it," Leonardo insisted, his voice becoming stronger. "Do you realize how much this family relies on your brains? If you've forgotten everything, we will fall. I can reforge the bonds created throughout my life. It will take you another lifetime to relearn what you have lost."

"What if we split the dose?" Raph offered. He didn't like how hopeless the conversation was becoming. Even if his family often got on his nerves, he did not like the idea of them splitting apart because of the Shredder's inventions.

Don mulled over this, ignoring his brothers' stares. "We could try that, but I doubt it would work. Otherwise, why would it be called a single dose?"

"Then why don't we give you most of the dose, and you can study the little we leave when you're completely back?" Leo shrugged. That would probably turn out to be the case most in their favor, since they couldn't hope to go back to the Shredder's tower and grab another sample to use on the last turtle.

"Wait," Raph suddenly cut in, sourness in his voice. "We still didn't rule out the fact that the Shredder might be trickin' us."

The two other brothers shared a dreadful look. "He has a point," Don supplied. "But …what do you have in mind?"

"He might be tryin' t' kill us off. Ain't that what he does anyway?"

Don pursed his lips, the look in his eyes hardening. Leo took one glance at his face and took in a deep breath. "Are you willing to take that risk, Don? Because, for the family, I would instead. But if it really does work, I know that I wouldn't be able to replicate the cure. If it doesn't … you still have a chance to make the real cure somehow." Raph threw Leo a questionable look, but it was ignored.

Looking downwards to avoid the eyes on him, Donatello thought over the proposition. "I don't … I'm not sure. I—"

"It shouldn't'a been a question in th' first place," Raphael cut in, not removing his glare from Leonardo's profile. "You're th' leader, an' you make these choices." This moment was one of the few times he was glad that he wasn't chosen as the coven's head. "We need somethin' t' grip onto, Leo, an' yer gonna make things solid. Figure it out or I'm gonna stick the needle in somethin' an' see what happens."

A long silence followed Raph's irritated comment. "I'm not sure, but I don't think it works that way," Donatello finally said in response.

"Oh yeah? Then Fearless better come t' a answer, 'cause this ain't workin'."

Leo took in a deep breath, hiding the anger that was building up inside of him. Although Raph was speaking with a hint of truth behind his hot-headed tongue, it still irritated him that most of the blame was shoved onto Leo's shoulders. Perhaps it was because he had reasons to blame the leader that it hurt so much. "Fine. I'll—"

He was cut off once again by one of his brothers. "I'll take the risk," Donatello announced firmly, glancing at his eldest brother. Leonardo shot an aggravated look at Don, but once his words sunk in, it quickly turned to shock.

"What? No. Don, if this _isn't_ a cure, we can't lose you."

Raphael grumbled to himself, lifted his eyes from both of his brothers and slapped his forehead. The argument never changed.

"The team can't lose you as much as me, Leo," Don shot back, though his voice was void of anger. In fact, the humility in his voice suggested that he really was prepared to take the risk for the team. "I'll do it first."

Leo stared at the syringe in his hand, almost forgotten in the argument. After some internal debating, with his brothers' stares hot on his skin, he eventually handed it over to the youngest present. "I hope—for your sake—that this works," he whispered.

Don nodded wordlessly, taking the protective casing off from around the needle. Squeezing the plunger down enough so that some of the liquid squirted out, thus insuring that no air was inside, he positioned it over his skin. "If this kills me, I love you," he said softly. With that, he stuck the needle in his shoulder, pressing the plunger to release most of the liquid in his circulatory system. Leaving a small amount for sampling later on, he withdrew the syringe and placed it on his bedside table.

A small, growing pain heated up from where he entered the cure, but something in the back of his mind assured him that such a thing was normal. Once it spread down his nerves and to the tips of his fingers, that security slipped away. He worked hard to try and not let the pain show on his face. As it spread to his torso, however, he could no longer compose himself. He slipped to his knees, curling into a much more compact position, as if holding himself tight would ward off the pain. It soon reached his legs, took hold in every fiber of his being, and he couldn't help but let off a scream. Don was no longer a part of the world around him, but was wrapped up in his own world of ache. He felt the poison pumping through his veins, hot and stinging, relentless, and there was nothing he could do about it. He was sure that he would end up dead.

Raphael and Leonardo shared a horrified look. "I … I allowed this," Leo stammered, a sense of numbness shocked into him. Raph grunted in a nonchalant manner, a complete contrast from his expression.

"Don, I'm sorry," Leo breathed, dropping down beside him. He draped his arms around his younger brother, hoping to soothe him, but from the lack of response, he figured that the pain was too much for Don to feel his touch. Whimpers and cries escaped from Don's mouth after his initial scream of pain, and even some incomprehensible words came out.

Eventually, his skin was becoming cold. "Raph," Leo barked, looking up from his burden. "Get a blanket. Something soft and warm."

Raph nodded without question, darting out of the room to seek out such an item. By the time he came back, Donatello was shivering uncontrollably, the only source of heat from Leo's body. "Here," Raph prodded, whipping the blanket over Don. Leo pulled back enough so that he could wrap Don completely to keep the heat in, but put his arms around his brother again once the blanket was in place.

"What's he sayin'?" Raph asked, kneeling in close once his task was finished. Donatello was muttering strange words under his breath, panicked at times, painful hisses at other times.

"I don't know," Leo confessed. "I don't know what's happening."


	17. Ever Again

When Donatello got no better any time soon, Raphael helped Leonardo move him gently back to his bed. The pair of them was quiet for the most part, neither of them having any words for the other. Leonardo was kicking himself for letting Don inject the poison into his body, but he wouldn't chide himself out loud. Raphael's glances were furtive, as if he blamed the leader, but wouldn't confess it out loud.

Once they were sure that Donatello would be as comfortable as possible, Raph left the room. Leo stayed by his sickly brother's side, lending him his body heat as well as give him company if he ever pulled himself out of his delirious muttering.

Michelangelo looked up from the television when he became aware that Raph had left Don's room. "What's up?" he asked worriedly, flicking the television off.

A sigh was Mikey's first answer. "He woke up," he eventually said, hoping to not worry the quickly panicked turtle.

A huge grin spread across Mikey's face at the good news. "Awesome! Is he alright?"

"No."

The relieved smile quickly evaporated. "What?"

"He's not. Leo an' me were talkin' 'bout the cure Leo lifted from the Shredder, an' when Don came to, he was a part of the conversation. Leo let him inject the poison inside himself." Raph sat heavily on the couch, leaning against the back as if he no longer had any energy.

"Poison?" Mikey repeated in a small voice.

Raphael shrugged, turning his eyes away. "That's all I can think," he explained. "Leo's got Don wrapped in a blanket t' keep him warm, but he's still mumblin' like he's lost his mind."

"That scream …" Mikey couldn't continue his sentence, but Raph caught on to what he was saying.

"Was Don," he finished with a curt nod. "What did ya think it was?"

This time Michelangelo hid his eyes. "I didn't want to think about it."

Raphael felt a pang for his younger brother, though he did well in hiding it. When things got really tough, Mikey often pulled through, even if he was sometimes a pain in the ass while doing so. But the kid always fell apart when the family bonds weakened, or at least appeared to do so. Whenever one of his brothers were hurt, he was either there and smothering them, or he disappeared so that he didn't have to suffer the secondary pain. It was obvious that he was trying to stay strong in his own ways, but that last comment alone showed that his efforts were strained.

"Up for a game of Halo?" Raph asked. Distracting Mikey was the only way he could think of to cheer him up, and a violent game on the X-Box was a way of entertainment that both of the brothers could enjoy.

"Sure," Mikey replied, though not in his usually peppy way of talking. He climbed to his feet to switch the CDs in the console, but before he could put the new game in, a door opened up behind him. Turning around, he saw Splinter coming up to the television area.

"Ah-hem," Splinter coughed, grabbing both brothers' attention. "May I ask exactly _what_ is going on?"

Mikey glanced in Raph's direction, eyes as wide as saucers. Raphael exchanged the look, but took the burden of explaining a second time. "Uh, we, uh … we went t' th' Shredder's." Splinter nodded, having already knew that piece of the plot. "An' we got out, thanks t' Mike an' Don. Leo grabbed a cure for … him an' Don, but there's only enough f'r one. So … Don took it."

Splinter leveled a calculating stare in Raph's direction, making the normally brick-headed turtle twitch uncomfortably. "Is advice in this family no longer accepted?" he inquired.

Raph's mouth fell open for a second. "It … Leo … he said …"

"Never mind," Splinter sighed, turning for Donatello's room. "I will talk to him myself."

"'Ey Master!" Raph called out. He took a couple uneven steps. "Look, it ain't so pretty up there. Leo still don't remember ya, an' Donny … the stuff he took wa'n't so nice. Jus' … jus' sayin' an' all."

"Thank-you, my son," Splinter nodded solemnly. Turning around, his walking stick in hand, he took an unusually long time to climb the steps to make it to Donatello's room. His acute sense of hearing caught mumbled words from inside, but he couldn't make out any of them. Rapping his knuckles lightly on the door frame, Splinter stepped inside.

"My sons," he announced himself solemnly.

Leo looked up from where he was sitting, his arms still around Donatello. The whites were an agitated red, almost as if he had been crying. "Uh … hi. I don't … Donny." He hung his head after his sputtering, sensing that the rat understood.

Despite Splinter's aged look, he knelt beside his sons with a youth's grace. Holding out a hand, he placed it on Donatello's forehead. He had known the four for their whole mutant lives; he understood if something was wrong, but spiritually and physiologically. "Time will tell, Leonardo." He cast him an expectant look. "I expect you wouldn't leave your brother's side, but perhaps you would meditate on it?"

Leo jerked his eyes up to look at his forgotten father. "Meditate?" he questioned, as if tasting the word. "Look, I don't know why I'd do that, but it doesn't sound like a good idea. Donny might need me."

Splinter sighed. "Of course," he allowed.

The two drifted off into silence. Donatello still muttered strange words under his breath, but his shivers eventually waned. The words turned into sleeping fits until he became completely still. Leo worried that they had lost him completely, but he continued to breathe.

"Do you think … he slipped into a coma or something?" Leo asked, drawing upon residual memory from some strange place.

It pained Splinter to say it, but his son required the truth: "I do not know."

As the day wore on, Splinter eventually convinced Leonardo to leave the room and get some sleep for himself. The turtle's protests were weak and shortcoming. Once the overprotective leader staggered out of the room, Splinter was alone with Don. Mikey and Raph had since gone to bed, peeking in on their sibling to check if things were getting better or worse. Splinter really did not know and his meditation didn't give him any assurances.

Eventually, one sure sign shone through.

A grumbled and groan sounded from the floor.

Splinter immediately cracked open an eye to check on the reasons behind the sudden noise. The primal sounds were too close for it to be any of the others.

Donatello shifted on the ground, tied up in the blanket. His eyes were slightly puffy, and his muscles were more relaxed, but otherwise he looked fine.

"My son …" Splinter began quietly. Don's eyes fixed onto his face. "Are you feeling well? Would you like anything?"

"M-m-master?" Don rasped. "I feel like I just woke up from a nightmare."

A sad smile ghosted across Splinter's lips.

"Why—what happened?"

"That is a conversation for later," Splinter coerced.

Donatello appeared to not notice. He tentatively rose to his feet, testing his balance and coordination. "What time is it? Where are the others?"

"One question at a time, my son. I'm sure your alarm clock will tell you the time and your brothers are in bed."

Don suddenly gasped. "Mikey—is … is he alright?"

"Why wouldn't he?" Splinter replied testily. He didn't want to give away too much in his response, but he was curious as to the reason behind the question.

"The … okay, it wasn't a dream, I know, but I'd like to think about it that way. But Mikey … I hurt his feelings. I didn't mean to, but I couldn't access my memories of him. My brain appears to be functioning now." Donatello trailed off in thought only to bounce to attention again. "The antidote! Is there any left? I should get working on that right away. Leo … we need him back." His face took on a hardened resolved.

"You should rest first," Splinter suggested. Knowing his son was back into working condition, he probably wouldn't take the advice.

"There's no time, Master Splinter. Leo depends on me now. The whole reason he didn't take it first was because I'm the only one that can recreate it. It worked, didn't it? I can remember everything that happened … and it all feels so wrong." He shook his head to rid himself of the thoughts. "Thanks. I … I need to go." Don darted out of his room, disappearing in the darkened lair.

Splinter stayed a few more minutes in his room before retreating to his own.

.

The first thing Michelangelo did when he woke up was sneak over to Don's room. Peaking his head inside, he expected to see Don and Leo asleep on the floor together, but instead saw a heap of cloth. Startled into blinking, Mikey did the next best logical thing: he knocked on Leo's door.

"Leooooo," he sang.

Leo rolled over in his bed, looking up at Mikey. "Huh?"

"Where's Donny?"

"I dunno. In his room?"

"Uh-uh. He's gone, Leo."

This got the leader's attention. Jumping to his feet, he pushed past Mikey to look for himself. "What? But I don't even …" His gaze swung to the bottom floor, his eyes on the light being emitted from Don's lab. "There." Adding purpose to his stride, Leo made his way to the lab, Mikey in tow. He pushed the door completely open without knocking for his eyes to fall on a familiar sight, if only he would remember.

Donatello stared at the computer screen, lines wrinkling his forehead in concentration. The blue glare bounced off his green skin, blinding him to the fact that his part of two just doubled. Lila sat at Don's feet, leaning against his shin with her eyes half closed.

"Don?" Leo asked.

Don jumped off of his chair out of surprise, sending Lila off into a corner of his lab until she realized the intruders weren't a threat. "Oh, hi, Leo. Mikey. I was … I'm better," he announced weakly.

"Just like that?" Leo inquired skeptically.

The sheepish smile that formed on Don's face evaporated. "Hey, I know just as much about this situation as you. It was painful getting back to the way I am now, and while I had to subject you to the same pain, we need you back, Leo. Thanks for checking in on me, by the way." He sat back down at his chair, his fingers hovering over the keyboard. "I'm fine, really. This is normal."

"It is, dude," Mikey piqued softly.

A dissatisfied micro expression crossed Leo's face, but he didn't argue the point. "Alright. I'll leave you be." He turned around to leave.

Mikey, however, didn't. "So … you remember me now?"

Don looked up from his computer screen again. "Yup." At Mikey's childish expression, he smiled warmly. "I'm sorry, Mike."

Before he knew it, the youngest turtle was in his arms, holding him tightly. "Don't do that ever again, 'kay?"

"I'll try," Don assured him, patting his shell. "I'll try."


	18. Sitting on Problems

Lila crawled out of the shadows as soon as Michelangelo left the room. She was no longer afraid of the family, but the turtles had learned right away that she didn't like surprises. She didn't appear to be the type to hold a grudge, but it did take a while for her to calm down.

"Are you sure you're alright?" she questioned Donatello softly.

Don turned his gaze to the cat. "I'm fine," he insisted. "Shredder's … cure, so to speak, actually worked. It's a painful process, but it didn't kill me and I have my _mind_ back. You have no idea how important your memories are until they're gone."

Lila flinched away from Don's words as if they were a poison in itself. Whatever Don had said, she didn't like it and made it quite obvious.

"Lila?" he asked softly. He silently pushed himself off of his chair to crouch beside her. "What did I say?"

"Memories. They're the reason I'm here."

Don blinked out of shock. "Excuse me?" Lila didn't like talking about herself, unless he forgot something while he was under the Shredder's drug influence.

Tearing her eyes away from some unseen focus, she caught Donatello's own. "I didn't expect to find someone other than my family look for me."

Donatello didn't know how that was an answer, but she was giving him more clues to her nature. Even though she had been living around the lair for the better part of a month—possibly longer—no one understood her. "Who was looking for you?" He didn't think anyone had said anything about the Foot searching for Lila.

"Those … furless shrouded in black. I think you called them the Foot, when we first met," Lila explained. She shrunk back into her shoulders as if she was reliving the moment. Don nodded encouragingly. "They were." A look of surprise shot across Don's face. "I'm a little more intuitive than you give me credit."

"I see." Don found himself wishing that he had Leo's emotional mask.

"I don't know why they're looking for me," Lila confessed.

Don had an idea as to why, but the specifics were beyond him. "Probably for personal gain; that's how the Shredder operates." Lila lowered her gaze again. "Lila … why did you leave your family? This isn't the first time that you've mentioned them."

Lila's back shivered, the hair beginning to stand up on end. "It's a long story."

Don recognized the statement for what it was, but he wasn't too tired to let it slide this time around. "I have time, Lila. And, if I'm correct, Leo has a little time to spare as well." He shifted his position from his feet to his rump, sitting patiently in front of her.

She sighed, swallowing at the thick of her emotion. "My mother died at childbirth. I was the youngest of two. There was me and my sister. We grew up together, along with a few others of our kind, and we were happy. We lived in the middle of nowhere, just the five of us, but we had plenty of resources to keep us healthy.

"It didn't matter. A couple years ago, my sister died. She died without warning, leaving me alone with Tanz, Emock and Nester." She closed her eyes at the mention of their names and it took her a while to come back around. Donatello waited in silence, taking in the information.

"One of the first things Emock brought up—of the three of them, no less!—was that I was the last female of our kind. My sister just died, and that's all he had to say. I understood the weight of our situation, but I was already bogged down from emotion." She shook her head. "I left them for a while, but eventually came back home. They had been waiting for me. Well, Tanz and Emock.

"Tanz and I … we eventually fell in love. He was the kindest, gentlest of the three. Emock was nice, too, but he lacked the genuine compassion that Tanz possessed. Nester … he was just their complete opposite. He normally distanced himself from the three of us. That changed when Tanz impregnated me.

"When I had the kits, the four of us were happier than we had been in months. We thought we had a future and that our race would reach the heights it did in the stories we heard growing up. We spoiled the little kits, but never in a bad way. We made sure to show them that they were loved and highly appreciated. They never returned the favor.

"I don't believe in pure evil, but those kits … they were little devils of themselves. I'm sure many have said the exact same thing in their life spans, but I'm a firm believer in thinking that my kits hadn't any good in them. Nester saw it, too. He disappeared one day, giving short word to Emock, and he was never seen again. Tanz, being more of a realist than the rest of us, believes he's dead." Lila ducked her chin to her chest, squeezing her eyes shut. Her breath came out short and quick from her nose as she got a hold over herself. Donatello reached out and hugged her close, which Lila gratefully received.

"Go on," Don prodded gently.

She pulled back slightly from his carapace, but tickled him with her whiskers as she spoke. "The remaining three of us tried to tame our kits … _my_ kits, but as they got older, their pranks became more serious. One of the kits almost killed Emock. I don't know how, but he had the patience to stay with Tanz and me, like he stayed there to help us keep our sanity.

"Mine eventually broke. I love Tanz and am eternally grateful to Emock for sticking with us, but I ran away. I spent a couple of days wandering through open land, and then found an unnatural, floating land. The air tasted of salt and was damp."

"The sea," Don supplied.

"The sea," Lila repeated. She ducked her head closer to Don's chest again. "I ran away, Donatello…. I can't ever forgive myself. I didn't know what I was thinking, leaving Tanz and Emock behind with the kits, but I fear I've doomed them all. I won't ever find them again, I'm sure." She snuffled. "I'll forever live with this guilt."

She silenced herself, taking solace in Don's company. He eventually lifted his hand and stroked the fur on her neck to help her nerves, but he felt like it was nothing in the scope of things. He hadn't expected such a thing to come from Lila; he wasn't sure if he should take it as criminal or treat her with pity. All he knew for sure was that he shouldn't pressure her further and tell her that the Shredder was most likely hunting her down. It appeared as if Saki had a hand in all things mutant, beyond the natural causes.

"My brothers and I," Don began. Lila lifted her head to look into his eyes. "We can try getting you back home. No guarantees, especially with the shortage of information you have, but we've helped you this far. There's no sense in dumping you on the street to fend for yourself."

"The thing is," Lila replied, her voice as soft as a summer breeze, "I'm not sure if I can go back home."

"It's better to face your fears head-on than avoid them for the rest of your life," Don pointed out.

Lila jumped up to her feet, padding on all fours around Don's lab. Don watched her from where he sat, shifting slightly to keep her in his vision. "I'm not … I'm not strong enough, Don. I see the strength of your family bond, how the four of you rely so heavily upon one another, and it reminds me of how weak I was. Am. I ran away from the prospect of a challenge, and I feel like I'm not changed enough to be thrown back in that situation. I fear my life."

It was the first time Lila had ever used Donatello's nickname. "We've been training you from the start to stand up to a greater enemy, correct? You have more experience under your belt—"

"What?"

"It's a phrase. You're more experienced in confrontational matters and can handle situations with more maturity. You're still a young individual; expressing your love more … physically wasn't probably the smartest move, but what's done is done. If we can get you back home, I'm confident that you can take care of your family and friend, Emock."

Lila paused her pacing to think to herself. "My whole life, after getting together with Tanz, has been a mess. Coming here didn't help at all. I found you … but I also found an actual enemy."

"The Shredder?"

Lila nodded. "The Foot."

"He normally has a hand in everything." Don was aware that he was brushing off the villain's influence, but he couldn't stress the cat any more than she already was. Then the turtles really would have a situation on their hands.

"You've helped me far more than I deserve."

"It's what we do," Don explained.

"I should just get out of your problems altogether," Lila continued.

"No!" Don rose to his feet with a shake of his head. "We're used to dealing with the Shredder. Clearing this crime from his palate is no tougher than the other situations we've been thrown into."

"Honestly, I don't deserve your compassion."

"And why not?"

"I'm a monster."

That phrase struck deep, but Donatello tried not to let it show. "Lila, so are we."

"I beg to differ."

"To normal society, if we show our faces, we'd have the national guard on our doorstep. We're freaks … monsters."

"But you've done nothing wrong."

Don grabbed her hands, pulling her up to her height. "And you can work past your societal infractions. Lila, calm down, okay?"

"I've been sitting on these problems for more than a couple years now," she replied bitingly.

"Getting the problems off your chest is the first step towards improvement."

Lila jerked her hands out of Don's grip, avoiding his gaze. "I don't deserve your sympathy." With that, she darted out of Don's lab, leaving the door gaping open and Donatello open-mouthed in shock. Don stared after her for another couple heartbeats before temporarily shoving the newly arisen problem aside and turned back to his research.

The resolve didn't last for long. Don normally had an uncanny ability to focus on his project and tune everything else out—including hunger and sleep. Now, however, was not the time.

Something was nagging at the back of Donatello's brain and his consciousness wouldn't allow him to, as Lila put it, sit on it. Whenever Don needed counseling from his brothers, it was a rare time, indeed, but now appeared to be one of those times. Stalking out of his lab, glancing consciously around, Don slipped through the lair and to Leo's room. Knocking lightly on the doorframe, he searched the immediate area with his eyes for Lila. He didn't see her.

Leo poked his head out of his door. "Don?" he questioned, his brows pulling together.

Don jerked his focus back at Leo's face. Aware of Lila's acute senses, he shoved the leader into his room and spoke in a whisper. "I think we have a problem."

"What?" Leo demanded, his voice just as quiet as Don's. His mind immediately shot to the worst case scenario; the cure was about to have an opposite effect on Don's body.

"It's Lila." Leo let out an involuntary sigh of relief. "She told me her history and it's pockmarked with … sticky situations. She blames herself for things she did and didn't do."

"I don't see why this is a problem," Leo replied, raising the volume of his voice by a little.

"She ran away from her kits, her … boyfriend and her closest friend. She claims her kits are evil. And now she's stressed because the Shredder is after her. Why? What did she do?"

"It's more like what did _he_ do," Leo corrected. When Don tossed him a quizzical look, he rubbed his shoulder as if it needed relaxing. "When Raph and I were trapped in the Shredder's lair, he told us his connection with Lila. Apparently her ancestors were some genetic experiment he concocted a couple decades back to build his army of Foot with better, lither warriors."

"Is that supposed to be some easy way out or something?" Don scoffed.

"I don't know. Does it matter? But now that the Shredder knows that his experiment still lives, he wants Lila and—of course—he won't hesitate in killing us if we get in his way."

"Yet he didn't kill the three of us when we were sitting invulnerable on his front step," Don supplied with a skeptic voice.

"I think he took solace in thinking that the poison he used on me—and through me, you—would take care of our meddlesome behaviors." Don allowed himself a smirk. "But he might have been saving it to use on Lila, once he got his hands on her."

"Hasn't mass-produced the stuff? How uncharacteristically conservative of him."

"I'm not here to judge." He paused, taking in a breath and crossing his arms. "So how does Lila's history give us a problem?"

Don's expression immediately sunk. "She doesn't want to go back home, and we definitely can't keep her here. Now that I know the real reason behind Shredder's attack against her, I think we need to get her as far away from New York in as little time as possible. We have a lot riding on this little situation. I don't like it."

"None of us like it, Don," Leo pointed out. "What are you doing right now?"

"What do you mean?" Don asked. He wasn't sure if Leo's condition was getting progressively worse all of a sudden or if he just needed to clarify his ambitions a little better.

"In your lab. You're spending a lot of time in there."

"And here I was thinking you were back to normal. I'm working on your cure, Leo."

Leonardo nodded. "Don't worry about Lila. I'll talk to her and see if I can set things straight. Keep … working on that." When Don's expression didn't lighten up, Leo uncrossed his arms and set both hands on Donatello's shoulders. "We'll pull through this, Don. Focus on one thing and settle down, okay?"

Don nodded half-heartedly, more for convincing Leo than himself.

"Good. Thanks for telling me this."

It was a clear dismissal, but it felt so wrong. It wasn't his brother that he was talking to … things hadn't changed at all.


	19. Fresh Air

Lila didn't stay hidden for long. She didn't know the lair as well as the five inhabitants, despite the fact that she had plenty of time to explore it. She expected Donatello, or possibly Leonardo to track her down, once the two of them were done talking, but it wasn't either of them. Michelangelo was too busy in front of the magical television set to even notice the drama floating in the air. The one to find her wasn't even the intuitive Splinter, but Raphael.

"What you think yer doin', hidin' in tha shadows like that?" he grunted.

Lila spun around despite herself, seeing as his voice sounded from outside of her range. "What?"

"I asked, whatcha doin' sneakin' around?"

"I beg to differ," Lila shot back loftily. "Not only am I not moving from place to place, but it was never my goal to be sly."

Raph gave her a long, blank stare. It wasn't that the words were over his head, but he hadn't been around the cat enough to expect such behavior from her. She had always been the small, meek one; the damsel in distress. "What? Then what you think yer doin'?"

Lila jerked her eyes away, resuming the position she had been in upon him finding her. "I'm removing myself from a stressful encounter."

"Oh yeah, like what?"

"Donatello and I had a fight, the subject of which I do not wish to converse over. Now, if you wouldn't mind, kindly leave me be."

Crossing his arms over his plastron, Raphael stayed put. "That so? And what you think you can do if I don't?"

"Nothing physical, if that was what you were implying. It is not in my nature to attack someone." She stole a look over her shoulder to study him. "Besides, with your physical prowess, I highly doubt I would come out of a fight with you on very great terms. Not only are you large and muscular, but you retained your agility and limberness as well."

Raphael's eyes narrowed despite himself. "Is that supposed ta be a compliment?"

"You can take it however you would like," Lila replied. "It was neither a compliment nor criticism. If you would like to place a label on it, it was merely a neutral observation."

"Yer a hard cat ta talk to, ya know that?"

A quick smile crossed Lila's face. "I have an affinity for language."

Raphael didn't have a reply for this, but he didn't turn around and leave her alone, as per her wishes. Instead, he shifted his stance almost uncomfortably. Lila pretended to be ignorant of his presence for a while, but when he still did not move nor reply, she took the initiative. "Is there something you would like to get off your chest? I've heard it is a great comfort to state something out into the open when one becomes increasingly nervous about the outcome of an event."

"Uh, sure. Look, Lila?"

She turned around and stood on her hind legs, her blue-grey eyes locked onto his. "Yes?" Lila prompted.

"You want some air? I was goin' up top—"

Lila was taken aback by his offer. Out of the whole family, she figured Raphael would be the least approachable out of all of them. Yet here he was, standing within three feet of her, and inviting her on some one-on-one time with him. "Surely you have a reason for asking me along," Lila cut in rather rudely. Raphael didn't seem to mind.

"Eh, you were sittin' right there," he said in an off-hand manner.

"I find it rather hard to imagine that someone you once despised would become an object of your attention," Lila continued. She didn't accept Raph's answer.

Raph's body language became a little more hostile. "Shit's happened tha past couple'a days. I wanna see what all the damn fuss is about."

Lila eyed the bitter turtle for a moment, unmoving. She couldn't tell if he was telling the truth this time or not; it certainly was closer to his true feelings than the bullshit reason he had handed her previously. "Alright, acceptable," she conceded. "Lead the way?" She stepped aside so that Raphael didn't bowl her over when he passed to make it to the door. He didn't wait for her as he moved through the sewers with an unnerving silent air around him. She had to hurry to keep up as well as keep from slipping in the scum-lined pipes, rendering most of her mulling power unimportant for the moment. Eventually he reached a ladder that he climbed up. Lila kept a slight distance so that he might not accidentally kick her, but his pause was merely to check the environment outside.

She breathed in the night air deeply as he replaced the manhole cover. "I've been cooped up inside your stone home for too long," she commented with new levity. "It's almost as if I've forgotten what it feels like for the elements to play in my fur, although this air is far from fresh yet."

"Ya jus' gonna stand there all day?" Raph asked, having moved off to reach the ladder to a fire escape. Lila eyed the contraption before following him.

"When one takes simple pleasures for granted, one will not realize how special one's life is," Lila continued cryptically. She padded away from the covered hole in the ground to follow Raph's progress.

He grunted to himself. "Yeah, I'm kinda figurin' that one out." He placed a hand on each rung of the ladder as he climbed to the first metallic floor. Her tail swooshing behind her, Lila followed with minimal effort.

A small smirk played on her face. "Oh, are you so sure about that, Raphael? I've heard that your family is used to confrontations and turmoil. Do you realize how important your family is?" These conversations she was having was like pouring salt into a wound she created for herself years ago, but she was sensing that Raph had just as many problems as her. He had done a great job in hiding that in their brief encounters before.

He stayed silent for a while, climbing until they reached the top of the building. Lila felt her breath hitch in her throat as she remembered the last time she had been on a rooftop, but she now had a friend that would protect her. The figures clad in black—the Foot—could not get at her with him by her side.

"Yeah, I guess I do," he eventually replied. Lila had to think back to her question.

"You can't guess on a realization," she blatantly pointed out.

"Pretty sure I just did," he shot back.

"I ran away from my dysfunctional family and ended up in more trouble than I began with," she confided quietly. She turned her head away to keep from witnessing his reaction. He didn't have much of one; he didn't know how to respond to such a confession.

"Goes t' show how helpful you are." He walked to the street-side edge of the building, looking over the ledge. It was dark below, with a lone street lamp flickering to life as the sun set.

After a moment of thought, Lila followed him with the stealth she he had learned from Michelangelo. "Why do you continue to push those that wish to help away?"

"Who says I do?" Raph snapped.

"Raphael … it's not healthy for one to do so. It's nature for one to need another. Contact. If it weren't for that, no one would have a reason to live. Everyone ponders the meaning of life," Lila continued. Raph gave her a sideways glance when she brought up the meaning of life; he didn't think that was a concept she would grasp when raised in no man's land. "Some think it's for popularity." She caught his eyes with her own. "You, obviously, don't think so. _I _think, however, that the meaning of life is much simpler. Life is to fulfill yourself, and to do so is through interacting with others." She placed a forepaw on his shoulder. "First you need to define your goals, as abstract as they can be."

He shrugged her hand away, a rumble building up in his chest. "I don't care 'bout that shit. Something my brothers think about, not me."

"Then what is it you think about?"

He leaned his elbows on the ledge. "What it'd be like ta be human." Lila tipped an eyebrow. "Nah, what am I talkin' 'bout? I—"

"Hush," Lila said softly, brushing him across the mouth with a paw. She pointedly turned her gaze to the sky, filled with so many colors. "Your life is beautiful, Raphael. You fail to notice what is so familiar to you, and is thereby taken for granted. Just take a look at the scenery around you.

"See the sky? The void of night sends its tendrils of black over the sky's colors. The sun preaches its farewell to the inhabitants of … New York, but it will come back in the morning with a spectacular show. Orange and gold rays bounce off of the stone's vertical barriers, brightening your world, making it warm for the night. And then, as night settles in like a blanket of comfort, the stars will pierce the inevitable darkness. You are never alone."

"Whatcha tryin' ta do, huh?" Raph demanded. Lila saw the gears turning in his head as she spoke, but now that her influence had ebbed away, Raph's perpetual anger came floating back. "Think ya can change my life with a short little speech? It ain't gonna happen."

Lila fell back onto her haunches, hiding her hurt. "No, that wasn't the goal at all. I was just trying to guide you home."

"I'm already home. New York is my home."

"That's not what I meant," Lila whispered, too quiet for the turtle to hear. She didn't want to pursue the subject any more if he was to come up with an excuse for her every statement.

"Hey," Raph grunted, catching Lila's attention again.

When he didn't further elaborate, she lifted herself onto her four limbs and padded over to him. "What is it?" she asked lowly.

"Get ready t' run," Raph answered cryptically. Crouching lower, standing defensively between some unseen attacker and Lila, he pulled out his sais, holding them up at the ready. When Lila didn't move, he glanced behind his shoulder and barked, "Go! I'll handle this."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Lila argued softly. Her eyes grew wider and the enemies suddenly revealed themselves, pulling out of the shadows like dandelion seeds from an aging plant. Her breath caught in her throat and her tail fluffed up twice its usual size in alarm. They were up against the black furless—the Foot. "I don't think you can handle them all by yourself. You should run, too."

"That's the plan," Raph growled lowly. "Afta I know you're safe."

It was a touching sentiment come too late, Lila thought. "Okay," she whispered. Slinking backwards, she hugged the deeper shadows of the building, willing her gray fur to blend in as best as it could. Using the skills taught to her by Mikey, she treaded silently along the rooftop, looking for a way of escape. She tried not to think about how Raph would deal with the Foot. She didn't want him getting hurt on her behalf, but she was nigh defenseless.

Then, before she had a chance to figure a way off of the building, Raph streaked past, grabbing her on his way. Twisting in his grip, Lila couldn't help but hug him tightly around the shoulders, her claws unable to retract in her surprise. He didn't appear to notice as he jumped straight off the building, throwing them two stories to the ground. In midair, he let go in hopes that Lila would be able to deal with the impact herself. He rolled when he landed, but shot right back up to his feet. Lila's cat-like limbs dealt with the shock, but that did nothing for her state of mind.

"Are you insane?" she screeched.

"Remind me later," Raph barked. Before Lila had time to open her mouth in response, he sprinted top speed down the road, darting across the pavement at a seemingly random alley. Lila followed, having to move on all fours in order to keep up with the turtle. After a couple more turns, Raph stopped, glancing over his shoulder.

"What …" Lila panted between breaths, "may I ask … was that about?"

"Savin' yer ass," Raph replied shortly. "Shuddup." Pacing forward a couple steps, he crouched down beside a cover on a hole in the ground. Without making a noise, but seeing the muscles working in his arms, he pushed the cover aside and made room for Lila to pass. She didn't move, but stared at him blankly. "Move."

"Are you positive the … Foot … won't find us in there?" Lila asked.

"Nothin's positive," Raph said quickly. "Move!"

Swallowing out of frustration, Lila padded up to the hole and lowered her legs onto the ladder she knew existed. Trying to move quickly, but slowly enough so that she didn't trip over herself, she eventually found the ground to the sewer systems. Raph joined her momentarily.

"They're still lookin' fer ya," Raph pointed out. He took off down the labyrinth-like passages. "Guess we still gotta watch our steps."

"Obviously," Lila huffed. Using her ears more than her eyes, she followed the turtle back home. "I guess I'm still staying under here like a lump of rotting meat."

Raph paused, causing Lila to nearly crash into him. "Say what?"

"Rotting meat … underground. Doing absolutely nothing."

"Oh." He continued his pace. "Whatevah."


End file.
